northeast-flora-and-fauna

Although getting pictures of them isn't easy I'm a little surprised I haven't talked about Northern Harriers before now in this blog. They are the most owl-like hawk species in our area, with a flattish owl face. This is due to how important hearing is for this hawk; similar to owls, sounds hitting their faces gets funneled to their ears, making it more likely they're going to hear small prey to pounce on.  Their most common hunting technique is to fly just a few feet above the vegetation of a meadow, veering left and right, up and down, until they hear a mouse/vole/shrew scamper through the grasses, at which point they dive on that spot. At this point they might disappear below the grassline; it's not always easy to tell whether their hunt was successful.  They are associated with Short-eared Owls , with both species spending the winters here, breeding further north, and hunting similar prey using similar techniques, frequently in the same area. And both species a...

For Throwback Thursday, here's a Short-eared Owl I met back in January of 2019. As you can tell from the photos, these birds are all-in when it comes to social distancing - at least with regards to nosy bird watchers. They would sometimes get fairly close to one another and the Northern Harriers that were hunting in the same fields. And if all goes well for the owls, they get really close to the voles, shrews, and mice in the field; those are their main sources of food. These owls are a classic crepuscular bird, doing most of their hunting a little before and after sunset. They're very maneuverable birds, and may remind you of fighter jets as they hunt over fields. This picture was from a part of Duke Farms that is usually closed to the public; I was there on a special program they were doing.