Date: 1/5/21 4:54 am From: Don Simons <drsimons56...> Subject: Harriers and short-ears
Again, Joe Neil inspires me to comment. His recent notes about short-eared owls reminds me of seeing a number of them in Chicot county more than 20 years ago.
One late afternoon I found a fallow field just off of highway 65. A few harriers were patrolling just above grass tops as they do. One by one, they would drop down into an area of the field hidden by tall grass. I don’t remember how many, but it was more than a few.
Just as it was getting dark, out of the same area of the field, up popped a short-eared owl. Then another and another, I don’t remember how many, maybe just a few. It was as if was their turn to patrol the field for rodents.
I thought it strange to see owls and hawks roosting in the same area. A check on harriers on the Cornell website allaboutbirds.org, I learned, “In winter, Northern Harriers roost in groups on the ground, sometimes with Short-eared Owls.”
