Five Owl Night

Yesterday evening following a tip from one of the bird lists we bicycled out to Road 28H several miles northeast of Davis to go look for short-eared owls. The day before about 10 of these owls had been seen flying at dusk low over fields west of their presumed roost site. We arrived well after sunset, and were immediately joined by our fellow Bigbyer Steve, also on bike. We were successful and saw the short-ears, about a half-dozen all told, hunting languidly over the fields.

More owls on the way back — also on Road 28H we spotted one of the resident burrowing owls, and then riding through Davis and campus we heard several barn owls and a great horned owl.

At that point I figured I could make it a five owl evening by hunting down the Owl Nebula (M97) in Ursa Major. It was not a great night for doing this, with a waxing moon in the sky and high thin clouds, but I managed to see the nebula through my 7” Dob. Not a great view of the nebula, but it wasn’t at the threshold of visibility either.