[Tweeters] Truly special habitat - or just 'learned locations'?

[Ronda Stark]

Hi Jim,

People do see Short eared Owls at the West 90 but they tend to be way out
near the dike.

I have discovered the SEOW do not like windy weather and often the West 90
is much windier than the East 90.

I will be interested to read other responses as well.

Ronda

On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 12:44 PM <jimbetz at jimbetz.com> wrote:


> Hi,

>

>    Have you been to the East 90?  There are Harriers, Short-eared

> Owls, Eagles, Kestrels, and

> even the occasional Red-Tailed Hawk.  Not just a few but

> "concentrated" (common to see them

> there this time of year and for the last 4 years that I've been going

> there.

>

>    However, not very far away (less than a mile or so as the owl

> flies) is the West 90 and

> the road from there to Samish Island.  A lot of this seems, to this

> observer, to be

> essentially the same habitat as the East 90 ... but there is no where

> near the concentration of

> birds and very few to zero Short-eared Owls ... ???  I have seen

> harriers in the section

> between the "wiggle in the road" and Samish Island.  And often an

> eagle or a hawk ... but

> I've never seen a SEOW in that section.

>    You would think that the concentration of just the harriers and

> SEOWs would deplete the

> voles to the point that the birds would move on to different places.

>

>    Any ideas on why this is true?  Especially on why there are so many

> more birds at the

> East 90.  Yes, I get it that it is all about the voles.  I just don't

> understand why

> the area around the East 90 has so many more voles.  To my eye the

> habitat is the same -

> the areas between the West 90 and Samish Island has been fallow for a

> similar amount of

> time, has corn fields near by, has the same amount of water, etc.

>

>       - Jim

>

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