More Short-eared Owls

After getting some pretty good photographs of short-eared owls, I went back to the grasslands that I’ve been calling Harrier Hill. The day had been sunny and bright, cool but not cold, with just a slight breeze and some clouds in the west.

Short-eared owls are considered an endangered species in Pennsylvania with but a handful of breeding sites – several on grassy reclaimed strip mines in the western part of the state and one at an urban airport in the southeast; there have been more of these owls nesting to the north in western New York. However, most breed far to the north, including on arctic tundra, and migrate as far south as central Mexico to winter in extensive grasslands.

Short-eared owls have wintered in the grasslands on Harrier Hill for at least 25 years. Although I’ve seen the species elsewhere, this is the most reliable, and my favorite, place to see them.

On this day the first short-eared owl made its appearance about 45 minutes before sundown –

It proceeded to put on quite a show circling around the car as it searched the field for meadow voles –

Three times it made a sharp, swift turn and dove on prey –

Twice it missed and emerged from the grass with empty talons …

... the third time it apparently caught something, and stayed on the ground mantling (hiding) its prey with its wings –

Vole, white-footed mouse, small bird? Any of those would be a suitable meal, but I couldn’t tell what the owl caught. Until it rose from the grass, taking flight with a vole in its talons –

After a few minutes it returned, made several more loops around the field during which it came within 75 feet of the car ...

… and headed over the ridge that lay to the south. Two other owls appeared high in the sky, also headed south, as the light dimmed.

Antiques

It was the spring of 1976 when I went into the garage of a house that was built in 1934 as a residence for the refuge keeper of one of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s wildlife refuges. Those tracts of thousands of acres were located on both state forests and state game lands and were surrounded by a single strand of heavy gauge wire to mark the boundaries. Within the refuges hunting was prohibited for most, or all, species of “game”. The refuges are long gone now, but some of the old wire can still be found in old trees along what had been the boundaries.

Fastened to one wall in the garage were some old posters –

The posters had been printed on lightweight poster board which was, in 1976, brittle and deteriorating, the ink on most had faded with age. I decided to photograph them before they fell apart or were torn down and thrown away. All but one were Game Commission posters, the other was a Department of Forests and Waters poster which was in much better condition. On each one were the letters “WPA”. These photos are digital copies of my old slides.

According to the National Park Service the WPA was a Depression-era federal program, the Works Progress Administration (1935-43), including the Federal Art Program that provided jobs to  unemployed artists, both men and women. The posters’ artwork was done by WPA artists and provided to the two state agencies.

Many millions of posters were printed, on 35,000 different themes. Since only a few thousand are known to still exist, originals in excellent condition have become collectors items, some commanding hefty prices. Others have been reproduced on paper and sheet metal.

These six posters piqued my interest: who put them up in the garage, how did they survive until 1976, how many others are tacked up in attics, garages or sheds, are these still in that particular garage?

Shorties

Is the third time a charm? Well it was on one winter day. After two earlier, failed, attempts to see and photograph short-eared owls we went back to Harrier Hill once again, the third time this winter.

As we drove up the hill toward our parking place a female harrier passed within 50 feet of our destination – a good omen perhaps? On the hill to the south the usual group of 10-12 juvenile ravens flew about, occasionally landing on the ground or on one of a line of fenceposts.

For over an hour we waited with only a couple of short glimpses of a harrier flying in the distance before it disappeared over the ridge before us. Short-eared owls are crepuscular, meaning they hunt at twilight, morning and evening. About 45 minutes before sunset four widely separated birds appeared. They flew buoyantly fairly close to the ground, resembling giant moths – short-eared owls !!!!

One bird flew past to our right, lower down the hill, with a fencerow and the valley in the background –

It went on behind us toward the field where the ravens flew. The next bird passed slowly to the left with a wooded hillside in the distance –

Another owl spent some time hunting in the field in front of us, flying slowly. Short-eared owls have long, broad wings and, beneath their feathers, a fairly small body. Although they usually fly rapidly, they can fly slowly and they’re very maneuverable.

When the birds sense prey they often bank sharply and suddenly drop almost straight down –

Gradually the four owls drifted over the ridge behind us and no others appeared. By then the light was fading, making photography difficult, and we decided to head back home, taking a road on the far side of the ridge to our front.

As we headed down that road a short-eared owl flew overhead, soon to be joined by another.

But they were at a distance and the light was, by then, terrible for photography so we went on our way.

On a Fallen Log

A quaking aspen seedling began growing in an abandoned pasture sometime during the Great Depression of the 1930s. We can tell it had been a pasture from the barbed wire protruding from some of the large old beech trees growing along the property line and by the other trees in this woodland: white ash, white birch, some other large old aspen and a few scraggly wild apple trees, those species are pioneers on open ground. Now younger sugar and red maples and some beech are waiting for those old pioneers to die so they can take their places in the forest canopy.

The aspen was 80-90 years old when it died, about the maximum age for quaking aspen. It stood for several more years as fungi fed on its cells before the decay caused by the fungi weakened the dead tree and it snapped and fell where it's lain for a while.

Like most fallen logs, the old aspen has become a bit of a highway for wildlife. Critters use fallen logs for a number of reasons: logs provide an elevated walkway which gives them a better view of potential prey or predators; running on a log is quieter than running through dried leaves; there might be something to eat on the log, seeds, insects or a mouse.

Speaking of mice, a white-footed mouse (perhaps more than one) is the star of this video showing the wildlife that used the fallen aspen log over a period of six weeks –

Every time the mouse dashed down the log it put its life at risk because this woodland is home to short-tailed weasels, fishers, barred owls, red fox, eastern coyotes – and other species that would gladly have a mouse for dinner.

But then white footed mice have lots of offspring because mice are destined to become a meal for some predator.

Back to Harrier Hill

Twas a very windy morning, with the temperature at 18°F when I returned to what I’ve come to call “Harrier Hill” (see this post). I parked along the road and waited for the birds to begin hunting.

Since I was there to photograph birds and automobile windows aren’t optical glass, plus heat from the car would create distorting heat waves as warm air escaped, the engine was off and the windows open.  There’s no such thing as bad weather to be outdoors, with proper clothing I was perfectly comfortable sitting there waiting.

For the first half hour there were no birds to be seen. Then, in the distance, near the hilltop, came the familiar form and gray color of a male harrier hunting –

He swooped and hovered, never coming close enough for a decent photo. After a couple of minutes he hovered near the ground, apparently having seen something of interest –

He never did drop to the ground and soon went up and over the ridge.

Before too long a distant raptor came into view, the camera revealed it to be a bald eagle –

And then there were two –

As the eagles circled, three common ravens that had been on the far side of the ridge rose to meet them. One of the eagles went into a long steep glide and was rapidly lost from view. Two of the ravens soon broke off contact and left, the third raven soared with the eagle for a while longer –

As the birds drew closer the raven dropped away and the eagle came even closer –

The light feathers beneath the wings and the dark feathers in the tail marked this bald eagle as late in its fourth year but the completely white head indicates that it is virtually an adult.

Still the ravens flew, but no more harriers, no owls and no more eagles.

Harriers in the Afternoon

About a half hour’s drive from the house there’s a hill on which most of the cropland on three adjoining farms has been retired. Now the acreage that had been in row crops is growing grass and forbs like goldenrod and milkweed. Some of the grassland is mowed for hay, some is well managed as pasture for beef cattle and some is left as grassland. That grassland covers about 500 acres, including a few acres of corn stubble.

One very warm winter afternoon with some light drizzle and mist in the air we drove out to see if there were any short-eared owls spending the winter in the grassland. Those uncommon owls often hunt their prey in daylight on days such as this. For the last few years both short-eared owls and harriers have spent the winter at these grasslands where they feed on small rodents. The mice and voles are pursued day and night by the owls and hawks, ravens, red fox and eastern coyotes – the little rodents get no rest. 

The fields that the birds frequent straddle a ridge that's crossed by a sparse fencerow as can be seen in aerial photos – 

On the side of the hill is a road that has a wide spot where we park to photograph the owls. We’d not been there long before a male harrier appeared, his light gray standing out against the shaded hillside across the valley –

He made a couple of passes over the fields but now much closer to the ground –

It wasn’t long before he vanished over the hill, not to reappear.

After a long wait a brown female or immature harrier made an appearance, slowly making a few passes over the field, occasionally swooping down, but never coming up with a meal –

Then another female/immature flew right over us to join the first in flying low over the field –

When they too went over the hill and didn’t return we left to head for home and supper. But we'll be back to what I've come to call "Harrier Hill".

Wetland Restoration/Enlargement

The importance of wetlands is finally being acknowledged, unfortunately not by everyone. Wetlands improve water quality by filtering overland flow and capturing pollutants, help reduce flooding by temporarily storing water, recharge groundwater and provide vitally needed habitat for wildlife.

Pennsylvania is estimated to have lost 28,000 acres of wetland between 1956 and 1979 a period when the U. S. Department of Agriculture actively encouraged drainage. The state now has a policy of “no net loss” of wetlands and there is funding available to restore and create wetlands.

In 2000 my office obtained funding to restore wetlands in a small drainage where there had been beaver ponds over a hundred years before. Here’s the process in scans of old slides (unfortunately some are not good) –

Closer to home, along the river there’s a large wetland that has developed over hundreds of years in an old river channel. That large wetland had a number of smaller outlying ephemeral wetlands which had been drained, plowed and planted to agricultural crops over the last several hundred years.

The large wetland and adjacent fields are now in public ownership; most of the old fields were planted in grasses and forbs to recreate the meadows that had once occupied much of the river’s floodplain.

In 2024 funding was obtained to restore and enlarge some of the smaller wetlands that had been destroyed by agricultural use –

Heavy equipment was brought in and work began –

The bottoms of what would become wetland were left “lumpy/bumpy” to create microhabitats –

Finally, those big piles of soil that had been removed were smoothed and seeded –

In the midst of an otherwise very dry summer several inches of rain fell and the new wetlands began to fill –

It was only a matter of days until wetland vegetation had begun to regrow and wetland dependent species were using the area –

Now Pennsylvania has a few more acres of wetland, downstream communities will see a bit less flooding, wildlife will have more space to live and we naturalists have another place to wander and see mammals, birds, dragonflies and other wetland wildlife.