Short Window for Shorties - 12 Feb 2024
Tonight skies were clear and temps were hovering around 40F. With no wind I decided to try for Short-eared Owls again at the Antenna Farm. Arriving at 5 pm I found a number of vehicles parked along Haggerman Road so I slid in about midway along the fence line.
As the Sun was setting there was a single Gray Ghost Northern Harrier foraging inside the fence but far on the north side of the farm. As I watched it a second (female) Northern Harrier sailed right over the hood and flew to the north. I didn't bother trying to photograph a rump-in-flight.
A few minutes later a dark falcon shot over the towers and went into a stoop over the field to the east. I didn't see any browns associated w/ American Kestrels and suspected that the bird is a Merlin!
A pair of American Kestrels would then appear chasing each other along the fence line but I couldn't get the 600/4 on it from inside the car.
Finally, as the last rays of the golden hour disappeared a single Short-eared Owl appeared along the east fence line. I had the Sony a1 and 600/4 on the tripod so I tried to get panning shots as it flew toward me from 100 yds away but lighting had dropped exposures to 1/100 sec at ISO 25,400. I managed a couple of keepers in almost total darkness.
The Short-eared Owl then landed in the fence 50 yds to the west but exposures were now only 1/10 sec. Too slow to photograph. Too bad because it was looking around wildly before taking off again.
I then packed up and drove toward the US Turnpike. A second Short-eared Owl was foraging up ahead along the road but turned to the south and disappeared across the field to my right. It was too dark to photograph, anyway.
An enjoyable evening just seeing them, though...
Antenna Farm, Monroe, Michigan, USFeb 12, 2024 5:32 PM - 6:26 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.127 mile(s)
5 species
Northern Harrier (Circus hudsonius) 2
Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) 2 Continuing
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) 2
Merlin (Falco columbarius) 1 Dark falcon flyover. Too small for Peregrine. No browns of kestrel.
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) 2
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
