Hi Winter Birders, Bird Studies Canada is tracking the year-round distribution of Short-eared Owls, so please pass along your winter sightings. If you see a Short-eared Owl, please send me an email with the following information: Location (coordinates, or general description), number of birds, date, time, activity of the birds (flying, roosting, hunting, etc.), name of observer, and any other information that you feel may be pertinent. We will be setting up an online sightings page to track Short-eared Owls, which will allow people to report sightings online from across Canada. However, this is not ready yet, so for now please send me your sightings and they will eventually get entered into the database. We will also ensure that all data from Christmas Bird Counts and Ebird are incorporated into the database. In addition to casual sightings, if anyone lives near a winter roost site and would like to periodically count the number of birds present, please let me know. Bird Studies Canada is part of a National Working Group on Short-eared Owls and we hope that this study will help increase our understanding of this species' winter distribution. Thanks, Debbie Badzinski _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to ONTBIRDS mailing list ONTBIRDS@hwcn.org For instructions to join or leave ONTBIRDS visit http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdssetup.php ONTBIRDS Guidelines may be viewed at http://www.ofo.ca/information/ontbirdsguide.php
