Like most people, I have a special place in my heart for owls and live by the motto, 鈥渁ny day you see an owl is a good day." 

So, when I saw six short-eared owls flying over the margins of Salmon Arm Bay one day early this December, I was having a great day!

Few non-birdwatchers are familiar with this medium-sized owl that typically hunts grasslands, marshy lake margins and open tundra. What makes short-eared owls so special to me is that they often hunt during the day, especially early in the morning, and towards sunset when their prey, small mammals and birds, are most active.

Short-eared owls are incredibly light on their wings and remind me of butterflies in flight. Bouncing up and down in the air just above the grasses, they scan the ground below with their eyes and ears 鈥� both senses incredibly sharp compared to ours. Once prey is spotted, the owl will pivot in the air and dive straight to the ground for the kill (or the miss), then stay on the ground for a moment before flying to a feeding roost either on the ground or on a stump or tree.

Hunting during daytime has the disadvantage of potentially being robbed by another marshland predator common on the Bay, the Northern Harrier, a type of hawk that likes the same habitat as the owl but hunts by day. In fact, we saw a brief encounter between a short-eared owl and a harrier that day.

Prey as small as mice and voles are eaten whole. Later, the owl coughs up a combination of indigestible hair and bones. Careful examination of these owl-pellets allows researchers to identify exactly what small animals the owls are eating. We saw many owl pellets on that day but the precise feeding habits of short-eared Owls in the Shuswap has yet to be studied.

Short-eared owls have one of the largest distributions of any owl in the world. Their range includes much of North and South America, Europe, Asia and several oceanic islands such as the Caribbean, Hawaii, the Galapagos and Iceland. They are even found in Northern Africa!

Their migrations are little-known, but one radio-tagged owl from Alaska travelled more than 7,057 kilometres southwest to winter in the U.S. The birds I watched that day could have been born here, or they could be migrants from farther north. Short-eared Owls also may winter here, or migrate farther south.

While they are called 鈥渟hort-eared鈥� because of the small ear-like feather tufts above their eyes, their real ears are hidden beneath feathers on the sides of their heads. Like some other owls, short-eared owl ear openings are asymmetrically placed on either side of their head. This is thought to help them pinpoint the location of their prey by sound in three-dimensions, day or night!