The Secret Life of the Owl by John Lewis-Stempel

Author:John Lewis-Stempel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2017-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

Athenian owl lucky charm

Short-eared Owl

Asio flammeus

Wingspan: 110cm

Weight: 330g (male), 350g (female)

Eggs: white, 4–14, incubation

24 – 29 days

FLAMMEUS MEANS ‘FLAME-COLOURED’, and possibly recognizes the reddish hue the bird takes on in the light of the rising or setting sun as it patrols its habitat of mountain, moorland and coastal marsh. This is a bird of open, wet country, as its local names testify: ‘moss owl’, ‘moor owl’, ‘marsh owl’. The short-eared owl, which flies by day as well as by dusk and by night, is one of our three owls which hunt by quartering (the others being the barn owl and the long-eared owl). Thus it has relatively long, broad wings, which grant it a distinctly assured, cruising flight in which the bird can turn without stalling. When hunting, the short-eared owl fixes its face so as to scan the ground somewhat ahead. I have seen these owls fly at menacingly low height over sedge, a half-metre or less: as soon as prey is spotted, it is seized. Not much escapes the eyes and talons of the short-eared owl. In order to confuse the bird spotter, the short-eared owl will occasionally soar in circles, buzzard-style.

When on the wing, this owl is most easily distinguished from its long-eared near namesake. The short-eared owl has dark wing tips, and a pale trailing edge to the wing. The long-eared version has neither.

The facial disc of the short-eared owl is pale, but ringed by darker feathers. Eyes are yellow. Otherwise, the bird is buff underneath, with a mottled brown back. As with the majority of British owls, the female of the species is heavier than the male.

Disappointingly, the ‘ears’ which give Asio flammeus its common name are no such thing. They are feather tufts, with no function as organs of hearing. They are raised to threaten, otherwise they lie flat to the top of the head.

Voles make up to 83 per cent of the short-eared owl’s diet, and it has been calculated that a single bird may eat as many as 6,000 per annum. Where voles do not occur, neither do short-eared owls (thus their absence from Ireland). Periodically, vole plagues break out in hill country, and then the short-eared owl may raise two broods in a season.

Wintering short-eared owls are highly nomadic, and will sometimes congregate on lowland grassland, marsh and fens; a communal roost of 116 birds was found in Norfolk at Christmas in 1972. Such gatherings offer the observer the rare opportunity to use the collective nouns for owls, which are ‘parliament’ or ‘stare’. The numbers of British short-eared owls are boosted by autumn migrants from Scandinavia. On the east coast, the migrations across the North Sea have given rise to the local names ‘pilot owl’, ‘sea owl’ and ‘woodcock owl’ (since the wader arrives simultaneously).

Breeding birds are zealously territorial. The courtship activities of the male short-eared owl are a striking spectacle; there is a hollow doo doo doo call, much like the whistle of a far-off steam locomotive, as he flies in a circle before plummeting stone-style while clapping his wings together below his body.

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