Subject: [Tweeters] Short-eared Owl at Kent Ponds on Sunday afternoon
Date: Feb 25 18:58:17 2013
From: Rex S. Takasugi - rextak at msn.com


On late Sunday afternoon at Kent Ponds, my wife and I saw a
Short-eared Owl sitting on a metal fencepost just north of the south viewing
tower. It was just sitting there minding its own business when someone came
walking up alongside the water and startled the owl, who flew over to a
small tree. The crows spotted the owl then and started harassing it (which
caused the owl's "ears" to perk up), so the owl took off amid the harassing
crows and it clearly could outfly the crows, both in terms of speed and
ability to gain altitude quickly. We were treated to quite an aerial show,
watching the owl easily get into a higher position than the crows and the
owl just kept climbing and climbing to a very high altitude (maybe 1,500 to
2,000 feet up). We've never seen an owl fly so high. It seemed like the
owl could have attacked any of the harassing crows in the air, but it never
did. If we'd not seen the owl close-up and would have only seen it in the
air, we probably would've thought it was some kind of hawk. Anyway, it was
quite a spectacular show.



Good birding!



Rex Takasugi

Kent, WA