Patuxent Bird Club (details pending)

Short-eared Owls are among the most widespread owls in the world and, for many birders, among the easiest owls to observe. Yet they remain surprisingly difficult to understand, and much of what we think we know about them is incomplete.

Where do they come from? Do they return to the same places each winter? How do you study a species that may only be present seasonally, occurs in small numbers, and rarely follows predictable patterns?

In this talk, Alex Pellegrini of the Maryland Bird Conservation Partnership’s Farmland Raptor Program will take you from the global context of Short-eared Owl research into an ongoing effort to study wintering birds in Maryland. Through trial and error, long nights in the field, and repeated setbacks, he will explain what it takes to study a highly nomadic raptor across low-density landscapes.

This is not a story about having all the answers. It is about figuring out the right questions. Along the way, you will see how research unfolds in real time, how local work connects to broader questions about taxonomy and movement, and why a bird that feels familiar is still largely unknown.

This event is free and open to the public.