![\"short-eared](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/short-eared-owl-8183-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIn my experience Short-eared Owls have been few and far between in several western states\u00a0for the\u00a0entire nine years I’ve been photographing birds. Not so this year!<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up <\/em><\/strong>or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this one last week on my camping trip to Montana and Idaho. I had good luck with a family of SEO’s six years ago in Montana’s Centennial Valley but since that time they’ve been almost nonexistent in that area.\u00a0Occasionally I’d spot a single bird in the distance but usually on my trips to the\u00a0region I didn’t see a single one. But last year I\u00a0began to\u00a0see a few more of them in that area of Montana and Idaho and this summer, over two trips and a total of about 12 days, their numbers have obviously increased dramatically in the region.<\/p>\n The same seems to be true for northern Utah. Short-eared Owls are super-abundant in Box Elder County where it used to be unusual for me to see them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up <\/strong><\/em>or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n And they’re apparently reproducing like rabbits in both areas. I’ve photographed many SEO fledglings in Utah this summer (I’ve posted several of them here) and reproduction in Montana and Idaho seems to be\u00a0almost as\u00a0successful. This young fledgling was one of three siblings we found in Montana’s Centennial valley last week but we saw others too (I enjoy\u00a0the erect ear tufts in this youngster – something I seldom see in SEO’s this young).<\/p>\n I’m trying to avoid jumping to unwarranted conclusions. After all, Short-eared Owls are known to be nomadic and to have considerable local variation in numbers and reproductive success because of the naturally fluctuating\u00a0populations of their primary prey – voles.<\/p>\n But I’m definitely encouraged by my anecdotal observations, partly because the apparent resurgence of this species\u00a0seems to be\u00a0spread over large regions of several states.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my experience Short-eared Owls have been few and far between in several western states for the entire nine years I’ve been photographing birds. Not so this year!<\/p>\n![\"short-eared](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/short-eared-owl-8350-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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