A short-eared owl at Killsnake

The December thaw continues to deepen this morning in Estabrook Park, and the air is full of moisture, either falling from the thick cloud cover above, or rising off the snow below into the warm air, so it’s not a great morning for taking pictures. Instead, let me show you some from a little field trip I got to take yesterday afternoon.

It turns out that there is a state wildlife area called “Killsnake” about 70 miles north of here near Chilton, WI. “The property is approximately 7,000 acres and consists of a variety of open prairie grasslands, both upland and a large wetland-grassland complex, bottomland hardwood forest, a small area of cedar swamp, tamarack and bog,” and it also turns out that short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) appear to love it in the winter time.

They have been spotted in Estabrook at least one time before, but that was back in 2023, and no one has reported seeing one there since. So, John, who has often led our weekly wildlife walks when I’ve been out of town, suggested we drive up to Killsnake to see them, and conditions looked favorable yesterday afternoon, with seasonably mild temps, a light breeze, and clear skies. Dennis, who has joined us on many walks, was kind enough to drive and got us there right at 3pm.

At that point, there were no owls, nor any other birds to be seen, but there were 40 (that’s right, forty!) cars parked along the edge of the roads at a T-junction in the middle of a huge field. Given the number of cars, I believe it is safe to guess that there were 40-60 people standing around, and the camera equipment they had brought with them was worthy of an NFL football game, except that much of it was wrapped in camo weather protection. These folks were serious.

We all just stood around and made chit-chat while scanning the skies periodically until right around 3:20. That’s when a single owl casually flew in and perched on a handy clump of driftwood that someone had placed just 30 feet from the road. Then the only sound I heard was the beeps confirming focus lock and the click, clack, clunk of shutters opening and closing.

If you had some video of the event and told me that it was a performance by a tamed and trained owl in front of a crowd of paying customers, I’d believe you. The crowd was very well behaved, nobody stepped off the road, nobody ran, voices were muted, but I can still hardly believe how undisturbed the owl appeared. As I mentioned it was a huge field, there were plenty of other perches, but it plopped down right in front of us. On top of that, the lighting was perfect, and the background was gorgeous. A commercial operation would be hard pressed to equal the setting or the performer.

The owl did fly around a bit and checked out some other perches, and I did try my hardest to capture it in flight, but this was the best I could come up with. Dennis, on the other hand, has some stunning shots, which you can see on his flickr page.

The owl even caught a small mammal, and you can just see the tip of its tail hanging down below the driftwood perch in bottom of this picture. I heard people murmur about seeing owls gulping down their dinner in the past, but yesterday it hopped to the ground behind the driftwood, instead, to eat in a bit of privacy.

Before the sun dipped below the horizon, at 4:16, the owl gave us a couple more poses, and then it started its evening hunt in earnest. My equipment really doesn’t capture enough light for that, so I was free just to watch it go. What an absolutely marvelous sight.

Soon after that, the temperature really started to drop, everyone started packing up to head home, and we did the same. Thanks again to John and Dennis for providing me with the opportunity to witness such a magical sight.

Finally, I see that winter is schedule to resume tomorrow, at least for a day, so I’ll be back in Estabrook to see what’s new, and I’ll be sure to let you know.

Lastly, if you’re new to this project (thanks for joining us!) or have otherwise missed my explanation for the double images, you can read all about it here: https://signsoflifeinestabrookpark.net/images/