This evening my wife, Colleen, and I went to the North Branch C&O
Canal to again look for the earlier reported Short-eared Owls.
Arriving at 4:32PM we were greeted by an enormous flock of European
Starlings -- easily several thousand.  We began scanning the spray
fields and soon found 2 female Northern Harriers.  We kept waiting and
watching while White-crowned Sparrows began to sing from the shrubs
below us near the spray fields. About 4:53PM we spotted the first
Short-eared Owl, and soon after another one appeared. They coursed
back and forth, hunting over the fields, seeming to prefer the shorter
grassy areas to the higher goldenrod.  We stayed and watched the owls
for about twenty-five minutes and only left when it was too dark to
clearly see them.  This was a life bird for my wife and only the
second time I had seen Short-eared Owls since first seeing 15 of them
together at Gettysburg, PA a couple years ago.

Good Birding!

David

-- 
David Yeany II
109.5 Pennsylvania Ave
Cumberland, MD 21502
Cell: (814) 221-4361