At 08:08 PM 12/9/98 -0800, Riesen Reto wrote:
>Hi,
>
>on the photo, the dark carpal mark (the dark sign on the underside of
>the wing, 2/3 out) is visible. I thought of this as a field mark of
>Short-eared Owls, but I don't have experience with the underwing of
>Long-eared Owls. I would like to hear from somebody who has!

Well, the Nat Geo book says the mark is "less prominent" on long-eared
owl, which is different than "no carpal mark".

It was the prominence or not that I was curious about in the photo, but
I do believe it could be a photographic artifact (not only late light,
etc but movement lowers contrast too, i.e. the black being "smeared"
in this not-razor-sharp image [judging from the scan, pardon me if
I'm wrong, Jim, it IS a tiny scan!].


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
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http://donb.photo.net