This evening (2/26), Georgia Doyle and I spotted 2 maybe 3 of the Short-eared Owls on Buckeye Road (Larimer Co Road 82) near the Rawhide Power Plant. At about 6:08 pm after a long chilly stake-out for the owls we were parked just west of the entrance to Visitor Overlook (closed today) and about 200 meters east of Buddy Rooster Lane. As the light faded away our hopes of seeing the owls were dimming too, so, when a large owl just seemed to materialize on a pole ahead of us, we both thought it was one of the Short-eared owls. When we moved towards it to get a better look it leapt of the pole and then, another owl coming from the Overlook area appeared right behind it. The lead owl landed atop another pole on Buddy Rooster and the trailing owl gave it close aggressive buzz-by then swooped up and around back towards us. We could clearly see the bat-like fluttering of a Short-eared Owl. The lead owl moved further south onto another pole. Magically, a third owl emerged from the ether to join the SEOW in mothy flight. As this was happening we moved onto Buddy Rooster Lane and I was thinking, okay thats the known 3 Short-eareds. The two SEOW in the air gave the pole sitting owl a few more buzz-bys causing it to rise onto the sky too. I found the 3 owls with my binoculars and poof, a fourth! owl joined the menagerie - WOW. All the owls were flying around in all directions and it was tough to focus on any single one but one owl did land on another pole. In a desperate attempt for a photo, I raced ahead towards the owl on the pole where we both saw the "horns" of a Great Horned Owl. With confidence I can say we saw 1 Great Horned Owl and 2 Short-eared Owls, without confidence we saw 3 Short-eareds.
-- My suspicion is the SEOW were roosting in the Junipers of the large wind-break at the Visitors Overlook the last three days. Right at dusk, they cross the Buckeye Road, fly down Buddy Rooster Lane a bit, then turn west and hunt the grasslands from there. My advice would be to post yourself on Buckeye Road near Buddy Rooster Lane just before 6 pm.
Finally, during our stake-out we saw a Belted Kingfisher on the telephone wires along Buckeye Road. A bit incongruous on a cold snowy day but not surprising considering Hamilton Reservoir is less than a mile away.
David Wade
Ft Collins CO
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