THE SHORT- EARED OWL 
By PHILIP B. PHILIPP 
The National Association of Audubon Societies 
Educational Leaflet No. 12 
To the bird-lover who has been fortunate enough to journey in the 
Northland this Owl is a familiar sight in summer. Unfortunately most 
of us have not been able to extend our travels to where this Owl is really 
common, for in the United States, or at least in the East, the bird as a 
breeder is rare. Some years ago, however, with a friend as interested 
as myself, I made a bird-study trip to the Magdalen Islands, a small 
NEST AND EGGS OF SHORT • EARED OWL 
Photographed in the Magdalen Islands, by P. B. Philipp 
group well out in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, situated, in fact, only seventy 
miles south of the coast of Labrador. Extending out into the wild waters 
of the gulf from the northernmost of these islands is a vast tract of 
marsh and moor, miles from the nearest human habitation — an utterly 
lonely place, the silence of which is broken only by the pounding of the 
surf or the cry of a Gull or Tern. Scattered about over the waste are many 
small ponds, with tiny islets giving a footing for a low growth of alders, 
gooseberry-bushes and rank grasses. Here it was I first made the 
acquaintance of the Short-eared Owl in its summer home, and this home 
is characteristic of the places to which it goes to spend the warm months. 
This Owl might well be called the Marsh Owl, or even the Ground 
Owl. Differing from nearly all the family, it is never to be looked for in 
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