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A tale of two low flying raptors
Or maybe I should say "tail," for that's the key. David Sibley calls the short-eared owl "our most aerial owl" and warns it "can be confused" with the Northern Harrier.
Perhaps. They both hunt in the same regions - marshes and sand dunes locally - and they have the same general flight style - low to the ground, seeming to follow minor contours in the landscape, mixing up gliding and flapping, and suddenly diving for some unsuspecting rodent.
But as I left Rt. 88 yesterday and turned right towards Gooseberry Neck a short-eared owl popped up out of the pine-covered sand dunes to my right and I instantly knew what it was, even though I have seen one just once before and that almost a year ago.
Why the instant recognition? Habitat and flight pattern, of course - but beyond that the short-eared looks like a flying bomb. (He's the one on the left up above.) I didn't for a moment think it was the harrier who, despite fairly broad wings, has a sleek appearance dominated by its long tail.
Yes, both can show a little flash of white on the rump, but this is more typical of the harrier.
(Click the above image to see it twice the size in a new window.)
In any event, I was so excited I grabbed a shot of this guy through the car window as I drove - not a recommended procedure from either a safety or a photographic standpoint - and then I lost him. I drove some more and came back to the same region - a public campground - by a slightly different route.
There was the short-eared off in the distance. Although he was nearly a quarter mile away - I lated measured the distance with a GPS and found it to be about 1,200 feet - I again new intuitively from distinctive shape and movement what he was. I used a 300mm lens - which on the digital camera acts as a 460mm lens would on a 35mm camera - and while the pictures are far from sharp, I was amazed what could be caught at that distance! (The four shots above were cropped from the much larger original images.)
This all took place around noon time. The short-eared is our only owl that regularly hunts during the day and from what I have read, prefers overcast to bright sun. In any event, Bren and I went back in the late afternoon to see if we could spot him again. We didn't but as we were driving away, Bren spotted two Harriers over the marsh. By the time we got in a good position to photograph we could only find one and again he was about a quarter mile away. Still, I got several shots in the failing light using the 300 mm. The one at the top of this entry was in the general direction of the setting sun. The one below was taken with the sun at our back. Both used the 300mm lens.
(Click for larger image in new window.)
For more experiences with the short-eared see:
Owl Time at Horseneck Beach (The images in it were frames taken from a video and won't tolerate much enlargement.)
And for an explanation of how telephotos differ on a digital camera vs. a 35mm see:
Digital Telephoto - when moe is less