Hi Tweets,

First, there's a book called Frontiers of Bird Identification, edited by Dr.
J.T.R Sharrock, an anthology of lengthy, highly detailed ID articles
published in British Birds during its ID glory days of the 1970's, which
contains, as I remember, an exhaustive ID separation of flight characters of
Long-eared Owl Asio otus (LEOW) and Short-eared Owl A. flammeus (SEOW).

Second, a late-winter-afternoon daytime observation of a LEOW in Delta some
years ago showed longer, narrower wings and flatter wingbeat than a SEOW as
it moved from fencepost to fencepost on an episodic still-hunt, rather than
the deep flick-wing prospecting flight typical of the SEOW's in the area.

Third, back east in southern Ontario, LEOW's were *much* commoner than
people thought. In the city parks and other extensive ornamental plantings,
almost every stand of 15-20 pines would have LEOW pellets littering the
ground below a few chosen trees, and a search in the same grove would locate
a nest six or seven times out of ten. Because they were so dedicatedly
nocturnal, no-one ever saw them, of course.

In winter, the riverbottom lands would host several communal LEOW roosts; I
think the largest recorded in London, Ontario was 150+ birds. I blundered
into one such roost once in the trees around a small wooded lake in south
London and counted over 40 owls before the last one disappeared into the
deeper forest. What was amazing was the manner in which I would take a step,
and four or five owls would fly out of the bare branches (we're talking
leafless basswood and alder, with no place to hide). I'd stop, look, and see
no more owls, take another step--and another four or five owls would fly
out. I'd stop again, look *really hard* for more owls, see *absolutely none*
and take another step--and four or five more owls would fly out. And so on.
Spooky.

I was surprised that LEOW's were so rare out West.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net

"She's psychic....we've decided to find it charming."
--Frasier