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HUNN'S 1994 SAS BIRDATHON OWL PROWL REPORT

It was a fine night, clear, calm, almost warm; a nearly
full moon stabbed through the forest trees; Venus and
Jupiter near their brightest served as beacons west and
east. Our small but eager band of allnight owlers gathered
at the Park n Ride at 9PM, then set off for our first
appointment, with the BARN OWL pair nesting in the old
windmill at Marymoor Park. We arrived a few minutes late;
the male was off hunting; the female presumably silently
guarding her nest out-of-sight inside the old mill.
Patience. At 10 PM a shadow flicked past over the trees,
then circled high, hissing at our lights, then away for
another mouse.

Next stop was St. Edwards State Park north of Juanita,
rumored home to a pair of BARRED OWLs. At least they were
conspicuous last summer, but with no recent reports the lead
was a gamble. Still I had no alternative site en route. My
crude imitation of the Barred Owl's rich baritone "Who Cooks
For You All" elicited high whining whistles from the middle
distance in a patch of park old growth. I suspected
recently fledged young who thought I was mother returning
with dinner. Beyond these whistles there was no further
communication and their identity remained uncertain. So we
forced our way toward the source of the sounds, through the
underbrush to the lip of a cliff. One last hoot brought the
adult swooping onto a snag overhead with a squawk.

Our next stop, at Carnation for the most common
species, the WESTERN SCREECH OWL, proved unsuccessful. Time
was draining away, so we hit I-90 east, next stop Old
Blewett Pass, 4000 feet up in the Wenatchee Mountains, an
owl stronghold. Just west of the pass we heard the distant
resonant "oops" of three tiny FLAMMULATED OWLs and at our
backs the piping whistled notes of a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL,
with a GREAT HORNED OWL hooting over the next ridge, now
tinted by the sinking moon.

Near Liberty at the bottom of a rugged logging spur we
tried for the notorious NORTHERN SPOTTED OWL in a remnant of
east side old growth. Not this year! Soon our owl
imitations were joined by the fluting notes of Hermit
Thrushes, hearalding dawn. We abandoned the mountains for
the sage plains above the basalt walls hemming the Columbia
River. Our bird list climbed in the early morning hours
with Horned Larks, Sage Thrashers, meadowlarks, a sky blue
Mountain Bluebird, Sage, Brewer's, Lark, Vesper, and
Savannah Sparrows, and a Golden Eagle at her nest.

Across the Columbia the marshy pothole country hosted
avocets, stilts, snipes, phalaropes, night herons and a lone
Great Egret. A furtive Virginia Rail with a single downy
chick, all black, emerged from the reeds a moment. We
padded our owl list with several BURROWING OWLs, one on
lookout from a speed-limit sign beside a freeway offramp at
George. Our seventh owl species was the LONG-EARED OWL. A
family was hidden in a brier patch of Russian olive
somewhere southwest of Moses Lake; two downy chicks just out
of the nest stretched to their fullest extent in an effort
to mimic a tree branch, but their staring yellow eyes gave
them away. This weedy patch was a nest of ticks of which at
least 16 found me attractive.

We had to return the rental van to Seattle by 3:30 PM
so were forced to pass much tempting habitat at freeway
speeds, leaving us on our return just past the 100 species
mark with 6 good hours left in the day. I padded the list
with another 20 woodland species at Discovery Park, then as
the light failed on our second night called in owl number
eight, a western screech, at Seward Park.

Thanks for your pledge of support. Your donations help
assure these birds will be there next time, when I go for 9
owls species.

Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 08:41:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Eugene Hunn <hunn at u.washington.edu>
Seattle, WA