Wine and Short-eared Owls

On January 21, it hadn't started to sleet or snow yet. We saw postings from Ky Birders about a Short-eared Owl at Talon Winery on the south side of Lexington. Thinking that the winery should be fairly empty on a Thursday afternoon, we headed down I-64 to Lexington, planning to have a little wine, then watch for the owl. As it turned out, there was a good sized crowd in the tasting room, but everyone kept their distance. The largest group took themselves outside to drink and talk.

Short-eared Owls breed in the far north, but come to Kentucky in the winter, favoring open grasslands. In other years, I have found them at the old Paradise coal mine site, and at a farm somewhere between E-town and Leitchfield. Other notices this year found them near Paris as well as Lexington. The best thing is that they come out to hunt about half-an-hour before sunset, and there us usually enough light for good photos. You can often find Northern Harrier Hawks in the same location.

As sunset approached, we walked around many of the open fields, but the wind made it pretty cold, so we decided to sit in the car instead. We couldn't tell which field to look in, but another car was sitting in the parking lot, and it looked like the lady had a camera. "She's here for the owl too," I thought, and sure enough the owl swooped out of the fence row. There was no place for it to land, so it just flew low over the grass. Look how long its wings are! This one made no noise while we were there, but a recording has them making a barking kind of sound rather than a hoot. It didn't take long for the sun to dip below the horizon and we started home. After cataract surgery and lens implants, I find it difficult to drive at night any more. My pupils open bigger than the lens, so the lens edge captures any available light, making huge halos around car lights, stop lights, etc. I'll have to think about going out at sunset again.