SHORT EARED OWLS
       "I thought that I had seen Barred Owls around my cottage this summer ­ but learned that they were actually
Short-Eared Owls ­ which look very much the same with their bars and it is made doubly difficult to recognize as the ears of the Short-Eared Owls aren't actually big enough to see above their head feathers.  
However, the one difference is that Short-Eared Owls come out in the early morning and late evening to stock their prey.  
 At the cottage this summer, we actually had three of them sitting in the trees around the cottage and one flew
within three feet of the screen door before it stopped mid-flight and took a jump up and sideways, momentarily
landing on the mudroom roof prior to flying back to the tree from which it had swooped.  I actually think that it could
not see my daughter and I at the screen door, but only the cat sitting at our feet and that is what it was after.  
These birds were around my cottage for about a month prior to moving on.  
In the early morning just after sunrise or evening just prior to dark, we would see them sitting in the trees preening one another...they are so huge and so magnificent, but almost scary."
                                                                                                                                            ~ WDC, Oastler Lake