I founds tuffs on several photos. I had the highest resolution shots of the
Snowy that was on the Edmonds Roof back on December 10. I was there for 45
minutes and it appeared the tuff on the right was up the entire time. The
left appeared up too but seemed less visible. During that time the owl had
some long periods of completely closing its eyes and it also had times where
it raised its neck and paid very close attention to a small yippee dog (I
think the owl wanted to eat it). During all those times the tuff did not
appear to change.

Below is a video I took. When the owl turn its head you get good views of
the tuff on both sides/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlebirdman/6491121637/in/set-72157628654414
239/lightbox/


Doug Schurman
NE Seattle


-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Barbara
Deihl
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 3:01 PM
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Horned Snowy Owls

Thanks, Ian, for making me aware that these owls have ear tufts. Once
I saw that they are tiny black projections, I searched through a bunch
of photos by some of you and others, and found at least hints of them,
if not fully-extended ones, on some Snowy photos of the following
photographers:

Lee Rentz, Bob Kothenbeutel, Gregg Thompson, Paul Bannick (on one of
his photo in the Seattle Times article) - I couldn't locate Doug
Schurman's shots from Boundary Bay, but I imagine at least one of
those has a tuft or two. I also didn't check Ruth Sullivan's photos
for them and I probably missed many others from here (Tweeters).

I am trying to figure out if these micro-tufts are for display, for
camouflage (as with Short-eared Owls) or just vestigial organs like
our appendix. Anyone know? When do they go up at attention?

Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net
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