Tuesday, February 6, 2001

Owling Ground: Field trip renders 5 sightings

Winter colony of Short-eared owls turns ranching grounds into a comfy vacationing spot

   Field trips to look for birds are almost always fun. A recent one to visit the short-eared owl colony on the Russell Ranch between Mathis and Old San Patricio got off to a slow start when my alarm failed. When we arrived at the rustic cabin, the other birders were already afield.
  Things began to get better when we found our hostess, Melissa Russell, in the kitchen with her first cousin, Magie Foerster, cooking, "We’re soul mates - I always know what she is thinking," Magie told me about Melissa. It seemed to be true. Melissa will not be dissuaded from feeding her guests, be they animals or people. Her kitchen always smells delicious. She showed us her pet skunk, Willy Wayne Russell, who was sleeping peacefully in his box in the corner.
  
  Rolling Gators
  We felt better and hardly minded being late. The women walked out onto the long front porch and pointed us in the direction of the other birder. By then, the morning was beautiful, and it was no hardship strolling down the unpaved road toward the field. Gordon Russell had allowed it to go fallow for the past three years in order to encourage his main crops, birds and birders.
  In the distance we could hear some of the birders, riding on two rough-terrain, open vehicles, called Gators. The Russell Ranch covers about 500 acres of open fields edged with brushy areas on slightly rolling land. We had been here later in the winter last year when wildflowers were starting to bloom. Even the weeds were still asleep this time.
  Short-eared owls are medium sized birds, a little over a foot tall, with a wingspread of a yard. They have tawny brown, streaked heads and bodies, and usually invisible ear tufts. While in flight, a large, buffy wing patch, and large black spots at the wrist make them easy to identify. While perched, blackish areas in their faces point up yellow, staring eyes.
  
  Open country birds Short-eared owls breed in the northern United States and in Alaska, but in winter they enjoy the comfortable, grassy plains near the Gulf of Mexico. Several years ago David Durham met Melissa and Gordon Russell, who had a winter colony of these owls on their ranch. They generously invited him to bring his birder friends to see their owls. We have been going ever since.
  Short-eared owls are day flying birds of open country. Their year-round prey consists of mammals, the majority of which are voles (stocky, mouse-like rodents.) They also hunt mice, shrews, insects, and birds such as red-winged blackbirds, kildeer and meadowlarks.
  These birds actually prefer the crepuscular hours of dawn and dusk when they launch themselves in a fluttery, nighthawk-like lift, then hunt by taking long, floppy cruises resembling those of northern harriers, at a distance of about six feet above the ground. The group saw five of them on the field trip.
  The fields were also full of winter sparrows, many of them Savannahs, and at a feeder a solitary gold finch was feeding.
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds of Texas since 1960.

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