Migrating Short-eared Owls

Short-eared Owl, April 11, 2012

All winter long I saw Short-eared Owls in the Fort Pierre National Grasslands nearly every evening. About a month ago I stopped seeing them. Then this week I began to see a few Short-eared Owls every morning as I drove through the grasslands. My theory is that the owls I am seeing now are not the same birds that I had seen all winter. I think the birds I am seeing this week are migrating through this area on the way to their breeding grounds north and west of here. The owl pictured here had probably just finished a night of hunting when I snapped his picture just before sunrise this morning.