Long-eared Owl

 Long-eared owls are a medium sized owl that is found in North America, Europe and Asia. They prefer heavily wooded habitats usually with open fields near by for hunting. They mostly eat rodents and other small mammals. They are a nocturnal species and are active mostly late at night. This picture was taken in Minnesota in near darkness. I had to use a very high ISO in order to capture the image.

 In North America the long-eared owls are primarily found in Canada, the northern United States and the Rocky Mountain region. While many stay on their territory year round those birds in the northern portion of the range may migrate south the United States or Mexico. The reason for the migration is because of the lack of enough accessible prey during the winter. This bird was captured at the banding station at Hawk Ridge. Once banded the owl was released back into the wild.This owl was photographed in the sage at Yellowstone.

The log-eared owl is one of the species of birds that has a misleading name. These owls may look as though they have long ears on the top of their head but, like most owl their ears are holes sitting under their feathers on the sides of their head. The ears are at different heights on their head, asynchronous, which allows them to locate their prey through sound. The flat spaces on the sides of the face, facial disks, help to funnel sound into their ears giving them very good hearing. What you see on the tops of their heads are feather tufts. There are numerous tufted owls species around the world. No one knows for sure the purpose of the tufts but it is believed that they help camouflage the owl by breaking up their silhouette. They are also often used to communicate the mood of the bird. 

Hey, Hey, It's our B-Earthday!

Four years ago today I began this blog with a post that said:

Welcome to my new Ecobirder Blog

In honor of Earth Day 2007 I have started my first blog. The purpose of this blog will be to share my love of the environment, wildlife, and birding with others who share these interests.

A couple days later I posted my second post which included 3 pictures of a great horned owl nest that I was photographing at Wood Lake Nature Center. I had hoped to put these pics into my first post but I was very new to blogging and was still trying to figure things out. I wanted to start the blog on Earth Day, since the blog has a lot to do with the earth, nature and environment, so I decided to make an announcement post on Earth Day to start the blog and begin posting the pictures when I was ready.

I figured that for this B-Earthday we would invite a bunch of owls back to help us celebrate. I photographed this little eastern screech owl near Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis in December of 2009. I heard about the owl of the MOU list serve but it took me several trips before I finally found it out sunning on New Years Eve. I guess that proves what a nerd that I am, celebrating New Years Eve out freezing my butt off taking pics while everyone else is out getting ready to party.
2009 was a pretty good year for taking owls pics. While I was participating in the Redwing Christmas Bird Count in December of 2009 we decided to quit and head back up to the Twin Cities early. We had heard about a long-eared owl that had been spotted in a park in St Paul during the Bloomington count the week before so we decided to see if we could locate it. It took us a while but we did find the owl. Unfortunately dark comes early in December so the picture is not as good as I would have liked but you don't often get to be picky when it comes to owls.

In 2009 we took a side trip to Idaho during our Yellowstone vacation to participate in the first ever Snake River Birds of Prey Festival. Since we did not have much time, Yellowstone was calling, we only signed up for a field trip on borrowing owls. The field trip was great we had owls out in the field to photograph and even got to open up some man made burrows to check out burrowing owl chicks. Definitely one of the highlights of that year.

I have been fortunate over the years to be able to observe several great horned owl nests. A hawks nest that was taken over in Lakeville, MN has been the most productive for getting pics. Great horned owls have produced young in this nest in 2008,2009 and again this year. In 2009 they raised three young that began to branch, walking out on the branches before they can fly, in April.

So far 2011 has been a pretty good year for photographing owls also. Although I have had the opportunity to photograph northern saw-whet owls during the owl programs at Hawk Ridge over the years, I have not had the opportunity to photograph one that was not trapped for banding until this year. Back in February a saw-whet decided to perch, for a couple of days in someones back yard in Bloomington, MN. Fortunately the home owner was a birder and he got the word out about the owl in his back yard. A lot of people showed up over the next couple of days, myself included, to get some great photos

This year I made a couple of trips up to the Sax Zim Bog during the winter, as I do most every year. The first trip was for the first ever Brrrdathon that was held in January. As often happens in January in Minnesota the first day of the Brrrrdathon was complicated by a snow storm that dropped about six inches of snow in the area. Fortunately the next day, Saturday, the weather turned sunny and it was a great day to be about taking pictures of wildlife. Since I was spending one more night in a hotel in Duluth I stayed out in the bog until it got dark. I was rewarded when a pair of great grey owls began to hunt along the road at dusk. Since great grey owls are crepuscular, active at dusk and dawn, they can be tough to photograph.

In comparison northern hawk owls are diurnal so they are active during the day which makes them much easier to photograph. I saw northern hawk owls on both my trips up to the bog, as I have in most every year. I took this pic on my second trip at the beginning of March. This hawk owl seemed to be very used to people so it was not very nervous about my presence. As such I was able to get some really nice pics.

So another year of blogging has come to an end and a new one begins. This is the 1502 post that I have done in the four year. I have managed to post every day for most of the past three years. I really hope that you have enjoyed coming here and have taken something away from my pictures and writings. If I manage to make it another year I will have to do something really special for my 5th B-Earthday. I have updated the slide show on my side bar, the old one was getting a bit tattered and frayed, and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope to see you all here over the next year and invite you to join in the big party one year from today.

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Long-eared Owl Lilydale

Minnesota can be a pretty cool place to live if you like owls. We have quite a variety of different owls that can be found in different places through out the state depending upon the time of the year. For instance, we frequently see northern hawkowls in the northern part of the state during the winter. They often come down from Canada when there are shortages of food. Boreal owls and great greys also can be seen in the northern part of the state during winter, but they are a lot harder to find. Snowy owls sometimes come down from the Arctic during the winter, but they often travel further south then the other northern owls. Great horned, bared, eastern screech owls, saw whet owls, long and short eared owls can also be found around the state. from time to time we even get a burrowing owl or two that comes over from the Dakotas.

Last year I was lucky enough to get my first pics of a wild long-eared owl. Although not rare in Minnesota the long-eared owls are not often seen. They are a nocturnal owl that can hunt in almost complete darkness. During the day they usually perch in dense woods. We found this long-eared after last years Hasting's Christmas bird count in Lilydale Park, it had been spotted in a previous Christmas Bird Count. It was perched in a pretty dense evergreen tree. The resolution is not that great because it was already dark out when I took the shots so I cranked up the ISO on the camera.

Winter Birding Part 2: Lilydale Park

At the end of December I once again participated in the Red Wing Christmas Bird Count. This was the third year that I have birded the back roads of Redwing, MN with my friends Jim and Jim. This year though we got done with our route early and decided to head back up to the cities in search of an owl that had been spotted the week prior in the St Paul Christmas Bird Count.

The bird had been spotted by Sharon "BirdChick" Stiteler at the Lilydale Regional Park. Lilydale is a small city park that is located adjacent to the Mississippi River in St Paul, MN.

Jim Ryan lives near the park so he had contacted Sharon to get more information on the location. The owl had been hanging out in a small evergreen not far off of the road. When we arrived we found the tree pretty quick but we did not see the owl. We decided to take a closer look at the tree to see if there were any signs that the owl might still be in the area. As we made our way slowly closer to the tree a long-eared owl burst out from out of no where and flew off into the woods behind the tree.

It was getting quite dark by this time and we were not sure if we would find the bird again, let alone get a pic. We decided to head down a trail that headed down into the woods in the general direction that the owl had flown. As we moved down the trail we heard the sound of passerines going crazy and we suspected that they might be mobbing the owl. A couple second later the owl appeared, it flew across the path quite a ways in front of us followed by a few small birds. Fortunately we were able to keep an eye on it well enough to now about where it landed. Jim Ryan and I moved into the woods to see if we could get a cleared view, while Jim Gay headed back up the path to see if he could see it from the road. After we had taken a few steps into the woods we located where the owl had perched on a tree surrounded by branches. It was getting very dark so I had to turn the ISO on the camera way up and as you can see it was good enough to get an identification picture. Unfortunately this was the only time I got to see this owl, shortly after this the St Paul Winter Carnival medallion was hidden in the Lilydale Park and many people seeking the medallion trampled through the woods scaring away most of the wildlife especially something as cautious as a long-eared owl.

Hawk Ridge

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the weather, with cool nights and comfortably warm days, I love the changing colors of the leaves, and I love watching the migrating birds. Usually during the fall is when I get to see and photograph a lot of raptors and this year has been even better then most. A lot of that has to do with all of the volunteer work that I have been doing lately. This weekend I spent Saturday up at Hawk Ridge in Duluth helping out. Some of the color is already gone, due to our early snow, but the view from up on the bluffs is still magnificent.

While I was up at Hawk Ridge I took the opportunity this time to adopt some birds. Adoption is one of the ways that the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory supports all of the education and outreach programs that they do, not only during migration but year round in Duluth and the surrounding area. As part of the adoption you get the extreme privilege of holding your adopted bird and returning it back to the wild. At the times that I had volunteered earlier in the fall I held back on adopting birds to let other people get the opportunity to experience this rare privilege but with fall coming to an end, the education programs at the ridge end at the end of October, I decided that it was my turn. So I ended up adopting two northern goshawks.

Part of the reason that I decided to go up on Saturday was because it was the last time this year that they would be holding an owl program in the evening. I have really wanted to go to one of the owl programs but because of logistical reasons, like I live three hours away, I had not had the chance. So this time I reserved a hotel room and I was able to make it to the owl program. This was fortunate because it turned out to be a great night for owls. There were several owls that had been sent over from the banding stations and were ready for adoption when I arrived. Most of the owls that were adopted were northern saw-whet owls. These diminutive owls are one of the owls that I was really hoping to see and be able to photograph, since I did not yet have any saw-whet pics. There were five of them that were adopted and when they were released many of them were not in a hurry to leave.

Another owl that I did not have pictures of before Saturday was the long-eared owl. There were two of them that were up for adoption and so I decided that I would adopt one of them.

The final owl that was adopted that night was a barred owl. I have seen barred owls up close before, we have one as an education bird at The Raptor Center, and I have photographed one in the wild in Florida but I still have not photographed one in the wild in Minnesota. I have seen them quite a few times but usually they are gone before I get a chance to get a pic. Maybe I can change that this winter. If you want more info on Hawk Ridge or adopted birds at Hawk Ridge then check out their website here. They do take pics of the release but it will be a while before I get a copy of those, they have a lot of pictures to go through. Once I receive those pics I will make sure that I share them here.