The Short-eared Owls of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge
Male Short-eared Owl with a vole for the family Red Rock Lakes NWR is simply a wonderful spot on this ol’ earth. Located in SW Montana about halfway between Yellowstone National Park on the East and Interstate 15 on the west, it lies in a beautiful high elevation valley and the setting is stunning. It’s not for the faint of heart though as the weather holds many potentially nasty surprises and the access to the refuge is primitive at best. But that’s one of the things I love about Red Rock. In late June we had the place mostly to ourselves, which is ideal for me. Coyotes howling, other mammals in abundance, birds plentiful, wildflowers galore, spectacular mountain scenery, amazing sunrises and sunsets, weather surprises, bad roads to limit visitation, isolation and especially those incredible Short-eared Owls. I love this place! Female at the nest with one of two youngsters On our second day there we found a pair of nesting Short-eared Owls with two youngsters. The nest was at the base of a sagebrush within a few feet of a road. I have a (very unscientific) theory as to why these birds would make their nest so close to a road with regular traffic. Coyotes are very common on the refuge – we heard them howling often and would see them but they were seldom close to any road. They seem to avoid roads whenever possible. A nest on the ground would be very vulnerable to coyote predation. So I wonder if the choice to build…