At 12:23 PM 12/9/98 -0800, Jim Rosso wrote:

>It was photographed in Minot North Dakota in a wide open prarie. Im am a
>bit embarrassed to say that the group of people I was with never considered
>the possbility of a Long-earred Owl. We just used the time of day that it
>was feeding, (right at the end of dusk) and the habitat as clues that it
>was a Short-earred.

>So we are wondering what other people can make from this rather dark slide.
>Does the color in the face move in to the Long-earred Owl identification?
>Is there enough detail to tell?

Boy! The warm color in the face (and other plumage) is certainly explainable
by the late day sun and apparent use of saturated film (just guessing). Is
the facial disk rusty-colored beyond just that warm yellow-orange sunset
glow? I can't tell from your scan, myself, but the whole bird's yellow-orange
due to the light so I can't see why the apparent face color might be from
the light. A larger scan would help, or close inspection of the slide with
a 10x good-quality loupe or inspection of a projected iamge.

It doesn't have a real prominent carpal mark, but again light might play
a role in this. I've photographed enough birds to know that late light
and warm, saturated film can make for some interesting color and apparent
contrast shifts.

It looks like a blunt, stocky owl, a flying barrel cactus, which makes me
think more of short-eared than long-eared.

And of course the habitat is far more typical of short-eared.

What was the flight pattern like? Who was it who said, "floats
like a butterfly, stings like a short-eared owl"? :) Did this bird have
that floppy, moth/butterfly type flight pattern so characteristic of
this species?

I've never seen a long-eared out in the open, flying ala a short-eared
myself, I've only seen them in trees and flying through the same, so I
can't speak to their flight pattern from personal experience. But I've
never seen long-eareds described as "flies like a short-eared when in
the open". Maybe someone else here has more experience with this species.

As you can see, I'm refusing to commit myself to short-eared, though
personally I suspect you're probably right in your ID.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net