The dark winter months can be a great time for owl prowling. Owls are nocturnal, which means that they are the most active feeding, vocalizing and moving about in the dark hours. With winter’s long nights and short days, it’s an ideal time to brush up your owl abilities with a walk at dusk to look for and learn about owls.
In Indiana, we have eight species of owls that spend some part of their lives in Indiana, whether they are yearlong residents or winter visitors. How many owls have you seen or heard? Check them off this list:
Barn owl, barred owl, Eastern screech owl, great horned owl, long-horned owl, Northern saw-whet owl, short eared owl (winter resident), and snowy owl (winter resident).
Of all the owls listed above, I find that short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) are the easiest to view. At Kankakee Sands we are thrilled to have the short-eared owls spend the winter with us after having spent the spring, summer and fall in their breeding grounds in the Canadian tundra.
They are a small owl, measuring approximately 15 inches in length, with a body covered in white, brown and buff-colored feathers. For being a smaller owl, it has a large wingspan of three feet. It’s these long wings that bring it down from the tundra and carry it silently and gracefully over our Kankakee Sands prairies in search of mice and voles to eat.
Though their wings are long, the tufts of feathers on their heads are short, especially when compared to the feather tufts on the heads of long-eared owls. These tufts have nothing to do with hearing, but they sure look as if they could be ears. Rest assured that the short-eared owl, as with all owl species, have excellent hearing.
Short-eared owls have quiet vocalizations, and therefore are not as easy to identify by their hoots and whoots, like many of our other Indiana owls. To me, their call sounds like the short raspy vocalization of an angry cat. Re-ow! Re-ow!
During courtship, males often utter a series of soft hoots in succession, which I had the luck of hearing one February a few years ago. Another sound you might hear from the short-eared owls is during courtship, when males and females will take the tips of their wings and clap them in flight below their bodies. I haven’t yet seen or heard this, but I sure would love to.
Even if you don’t hear their calls or hoots, short-eared owls are still fairly easy to locate. Short-eared owls fly at dawn and dusk over the prairies of Kankakee Sands and often perch on fenceposts and signs. What’s more, they’ll often look right at you.
It’s pretty amazing to have a state-endangered bird look you in the eyes. I wonder what they are thinking as they look at me. I know what I am thinking as I look at them: “Wow! That’s amazing!” How can we not want to help protect habitat the prairies and grasslands that the short-eared owls needs to survive?
Prairies in Indiana alone used to cover 15% of the state. Today, prairies account for a mere 1%. By protecting the few remaining acres, as well as restoring more prairies and grasslands, we can support a healthy short-eared owl population, as well as a healthy ecosystem for so many other prairie plants and animals.
Short-eared owls typically return to our Kankakee Sands area in late October or November and stay until about March. However, we have been very fortunate to have a few pair of short-eared owls stay all summer to breed and raise their young here.
Ever since we planted the first prairies at Kankakee Sands 25 years ago, this is what we had hoped for — that these prairies would be a home for thousands of species of animals, including state endangered species such as the short-eared owl.
This past year, The Nature Conservancy made a number of improvements at Kankakee Sands to make viewing short-eared owls and the many other insects and animals of the prairie easier and more accessible. There are viewing platforms and spotting scopes at both the Kankakee Sands welcome area and Bison Viewing Area, as well as benches and restrooms.
When you visit Kankakee Sands, keep in mind that because short-eared owls are comfortable perching on posts and trees adjacent to roads, it does make them vulnerable to collisions with vehicles. If you are driving at night at Kankakee Sands, do use caution to avoid hitting a short-eared owl and other wildlife that may be crossing the roads, such as deer, coyotes, raccoons and opossums.
Ready to see some short-eared owls? Join Friends of the Sands, the Newton County Public Library, and The Nature Conservancy for an Owl Prowl from 4-5:30 p.m. on Sunday and again on Jan. 25, (CST). To find out more, visit the Friends of the Sands webpage at https://friends-of-the-sands.com/
Not familiar with all of the species of owls in Indiana? Check out a bird guide from your local library, or visit Humane Indiana’s webpage on our Indiana owls: humaneindiana.org/wildlife-knowing-indiana-owls.