Open your eyes to spy short-eared owls

The short-eared owls are migrating birds visiting this area from October through April. They are not nocturnal birds like other owls, but hunt during daytime hours. They look for voles and field mice in open fields with bordering or scattered shrubs and trees. Their short ear tufts are seldom visible, but their light colored face mask and yellow eyes are good identifiers.

You can see them in the Samish Flats in an area that is known to birders as the East 90 and also sometimes on the Padilla shore trail, or at the end of Rawlins Road or on Whidbey Island by Crocket Lake.

Many photographers take their photos and they're always advised to keep their distance and let these birds hunt so they can be strong enough to make their long flight back north to the tundra where they nest in spring.