S/E/ owl

[Acipiter]

My brother found one of the s/e/ owls dead that I was telling you about a few days ago. It looked very thin indeed, I can only think that the bad weather we have been having must have played its part.

[Dogghound]

When you say thin, where abouts was it thin? Was its breast bone projecting out of its chest and quite sharp (not literally like a knife) to touch?

Short eared owls are particularly prone to overhead cables and being hit by vehicles. I cant comment on your weather but this species tends to move away from excessive bad weather and short food supply unlike barn owls so starvation may have been caused by another underlying problem.

[Acipiter]

Thanks for your reply DH, it was thin in the chest area, I did not want to play around with it to much, Its smell was something awful!!. Its interesting what you said about the road, there is one about 500yds away. There as been some competition as well, at lest 3 ringtails and two more s/e/owl and a few buzzard, all hunting over quite a small area.

[tigertom]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

I cant comment on your weather but this species tends to move away from excessive bad weather and short food supply unlike barn owls so starvation may have been caused by another underlying problem.

How bad dos the weather have to be to stop them hunting, as I was watching three SEO's hunting in some very dull and wet weather not heavy rain but a lot of it, over frodsham marsh Cheshire last saterday and they were not doing bad at all, saw all three catching voles and the one that was the closest me to got 2voles a mouse all in about 40mins.
MIKE

[Acipiter]

We had some very strong winds here last week Mike, and that was what I was referring to, or meant to in my post. I can not answer your Question on about how bad the weather has to be, sorry.

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by tigertom

How bad dos the weather have to be to stop them hunting, as I was watching three SEO's hunting in some very dull and wet weather not heavy rain but a lot of it, over frodsham marsh Cheshire last saterday and they were not doing bad at all, saw all three catching voles and the one that was the closest me to got 2voles a mouse all in about 40mins.
MIKE

Short eared owls (as well as other small mammal, open habitat, hunting raptors) struggle when we have prolonged heavy rain and snow cover as well as excessively heavy winds. Dull weather makes no difference to these owls as their hearing is very good, as well as their eyesight even when dark. Drizzle, light showers etc are not significant but prolonged rain just soaks them and makes it difficult for them to hunt. Snow cover often causes them to move south, into low lying areas, into river corridors, marshes or onto the coast. Very wet or cold winters also reduce prey numbers, SEO are a specialist predator of field voles (as well as lemmings, grey sided vole, root vole in Europe).