December 21st, 2006. South Maple Street/Bay Road, Hadley, MA. Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus. Had a drive down South Maple Street in Hadley this afternoon to check a field where Harvey Allen had seen an Iceland Gull on Monday. No luck with the Iceland but the same field held about 250 Ring-billed Gulls. A swirling flock of about 200 Horned Larks contained at least 3 Lapland Longspurs but no Snow Buntings. In the distance, I could see a large of flock of American Crows mobbing what I first took to be a Red-tail. On scoping it I was astonished to see a Short-eared Owl carrying prey with about 300 American Crows in hot pursuit. This event lasted long enough for me to grab a number of images through the scope which are really poor in quality, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the Short-eared was about 3/4 of a mile from where I was standing on Bay Road. The owl was a complete surprise and my first in the local area. Just moments earlier I watched a Sharp-shinned Hawk being ‘buzzed’ by about 400 European Starlings. Another good bird today was a Northern Flicker in the yard on Baker Street. We’ve never had a flicker in the mid-winter months but with a daytime temp of 50F it hardly seemed like winter! Images taken through Canon Powershot A540 through Swarovski HD telescope. |
   Short-eared Owl being mobbed by American Crows - 'detail' from the image above.  Northern Flicker - poor quality record shot taken through the kitchen window. Our first December record for the yard. |