Rare short-eared owls turning heads at Forvie near Ellon

14 February 2019

A group of up to seven short-eared owls has taken up residence on Aberdeenshire's Forvie National Nature Reserve.

Ron Macdonald, a former Scottish Natural Heritage manager, has been fascinated by the birds' antics since their arrival last October.

He and other wildlife-watchers and photographers, including Darren Dawson, have taken dozens of photographs of the owls as hunt for prey and interact.

Mr Macdonald said: "Short-eared owls are a dream to photograph.

"Because they fly in daylight, often slowly and perch on posts, they make fantastic portraits.

"They can be tricky to photograph when flying against the background of heath and dunes but with some basic field craft and photo skills, you will soon get the hang of it."

He added: "They also become more comfortable with people over the winter, becoming familiar with the visitors hoping to capture their good looks and interesting behaviour."

The nature reserve near Ellon is managed by SNH.

From 1970 to 2010, short-eared owls disappeared from almost half of its former UK breeding range, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.

The current UK population is estimated to be between 610 and 1,240 pairs and is a rare breeding bird.

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RSPB vows to crackdown on wild bird shooting after gamekeeper found guilty of killing owls

The RSPB have vowed to crackdown on illegal wild bird shooting after a gamekeeper is found guilty of killing two owls.

Timothy Cowin was caught by RSPB officers shooting two short-eared owls on Whernside Moor in Cumbria last April.

Cowin attempted to hide the body of the wild birds, but they were found by RSPB officers on the moors.

Police officers were called to the scene where they pursued Cowin on foot. He was later arrested.

Officers believed Cowin, 44, was using a device to attract the birds to the area in order to shoot them.

Cowin pleaded guilty to three charges concerning the killing of the owls. He also pleaded guilty to one charge relating to the possession of items capable of being used to commit offences against wild birds.

On Tuesday, Cowin appeared at Yorkshire Magistrates' Court. He was fined £400 for each of the two birds and £200 for possession of the device. As well as this, he was ordered to pay £170 costs and £40 victim surcharge - a total of £1,210.

Last updated Wed 29 Aug 2018

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Short-eared owls breed successfully in Malta bird sanctuary, first time in 100 years

Monday, 2 May 2016, 13:27

Last update: about 1 day ago

The first successful breeding of the Short-eared Owl (Kokka tax-Xaghri, Asioflammeus) in more than 100 years has been recorded in Malta, BirdLife said. Birdwatchers and field ornithologists Ray Galea, Alvin Farrugia, Daniel Bonnici, Steve ZammitLupi and Nick Galea of BirdLife Malta have observed the pair of adults displaying territorial behaviour which normally indicates a breeding attempt.

While monitoring these birds from a distance to make sure there is the least possible disturbance, the birdwatchers recorded enough evidence to confirm this record. A few weeks ago a young fledged chick was also photographed (1). The location is temporarily not being disclosed for the safety of these birds although it would be safe to state that the bird has bred in a bird sanctuary, a protected area where no hunting is allowed.

Naturalist Giuseppe Despott had noted two breeding records in the vicinity of Siggiewi and WiedZnuber on May 1906 and May 1909 respectively. Seventy four years later, in 1983, a nest with five eggs was recorded on Comino but it failed to hatch since the nest was abandoned. Short Eared Owls are bird of prey that feed on rodents mainly rats and mice and normally hunt during dusk and dawn. These birds are normally seen migrating in spring and in autumn, with a few attempting to winter on the Maltese Islands.

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The owls beyond the Andes: Divergence between distant populations suggests new species

Date: November 11, 2015

Source: Pensoft Publishers

They might be looking quite identical, while perched above humanised farmlands and grasslands across several continents, but each of the populations of two owl species, living in the opposite hemispheres, might actually turn out to be yet another kind. This suggestion has been made by Dr. Nelson Colihueque and his team from Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile, based on new genetic divergence analyses of the Common Barn and the Short-eared Owl populations from southern Chile and comparing them with those from other geographic areas. The study is published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Although much has been known about the two widespread owl species, the knowledge about them has so far been restricted mainly to aspects such as their diet, conservation status and habitats. On the other hand, their genetic divergence in comparison with populations in distant areas has received little attention. Moreover, their taxonomical status is still based on traditional identification rather than modern methods such as the herein utilised mitochondrial COI sequencing.

Thus, the Chilean research team concluded a significant genetic divergence among the populations of both species from a few distinctive groups. In the case of the Common Barn Owl they compared the new analysis of its South American representatives with already available such data about populations from North America, Northern Europe and Australasia. For the Short-eared Owl, they compared Chilean and Argentinean birds with North American and North Asian.

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Short-eared Owls found shot in Co Durham

Posted on: 31 Oct 2015

Durham Police and the RSPB are appealing for information following the shooting of two Short-eared Owls in March this year.

Found by a member of the public, the dead owls were pushed into a pothole near Selset Reservoir in Co Durham. They were recovered on 2 March 2015 and sent for a post mortem examination, where it was confirmed that both birds had been shot.

Short-eared Owls are fully protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The maximum sentence for the illegal killing of a wild bird is six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The species can frequently be seen hunting in broad daylight as well as in the early evening. They live mainly on a diet of small mammals such as voles, and the main wintering numbers are just beginning to arrive in Britain from Scandinavia.

To attract a mate, the males perform dramatic sky-dancing displays over open moorland, accompanied by wing clapping to alert females of their presence. The breeding range of Britain's Short-eared Owl population has shrunk in recent years, though the reasons for this are not fully understood.

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