Suprise birding find yesterday.
We found several short eared owls flying and hunting over some open fields near Lake Champlain.
We were headed to Lake Champlain to try some ice fishing but turned around and went back to the house for cameras.
The owls were still there and still hunting an hour later when we returned.
I had never seen a short eared owl. We were considering a search for a snowy owl as they are sometimes seen along Lake Champlain but didn't due to no reported sightings recently.
We even saw a local Audubon Society staffer that stopped to check out the short eared owl and they confirmed no local sightings of the snowy owl this year 馃檨