The Short-Eared Owls of Pickaway County

 The Short-Eared Owls that visit Pickaway County during the winter put on quite a show yesterday! They can be seen on River Drive just south of Circleville. 
We arrived yesterday at 3pm after learning that the owls started hunting at about 2:30 the previous day. 
While waiting for them to show, we chatted with other owl watchers and owl photographers. 
At about 4:30, the first couple of owls popped up and began coursing the prairie in search of mice and voles (their preferred food). 
By 5pm, there were several owls out and they were putting on quite a show. 
I'll post some still shots here, but am also posting some "videos" made by combining still shots in a separate post. Because of the ability of the OM System OM-1 to track and shoot at 50 frames per second, the still shots can create a nice video clip. Each frame of the clips is an individual still shot. 
Our Owls Gallery

Missing the Snowy Owls this winter!

 I sure am missing seeing the Snowy Owls this year!

Snowy Owls are rare visitors from the far north. Their normal habitat is the arctic tundra, but some years, they venture south into the northern US is search of food sources.

This happened in 2017 and again in 2021-2022 when many Snowy Owls were seen in Ohio. I think only one was seen briefly around Cleveland this year.

In 2017, one stayed at the CJ Brown Beach for a week. Last year, another was also seen at the CJ Brown beach....but only for a day.

Here's some of our images of those two Snowy Owls.