>Can any of you provide suggestions of specific places in western
>Washington (ideally near Puget Sound) to find these species in the Fall:
>
>W. Screech Owl
>Barred Owl
>N. Saw-whet Owl
>N. Pygmy Owl
>N. Goshawk
>Spruce Grouse
>Sharp-tailed Grouse
>Ruffed Grouse
>
>Thanks, Mary Ellen Ahearn

Northern Pygmy-Owls are easy to find at this time of year if you go up even
a little ways into the Cascades mountain coniferous forest and can imitate
the whistled call (or have a tape of it). They disperse at this time of the
year and are very responsive to the call of other owls. This is especially
true in October, and I'm not sure how long into the winter the
responsiveness lasts. For the other species on the list, good luck! Grouse
are always hard to find, usually by driving along lots of back roads.
Spruce and Sharp-tailed grouse are only in northeastern Washington, Ruffed
are everywhere but in low density. Goshawks are rare but are mostly in the
mountains, screech-owls are fairly common in lowland forests and can be
pulled out by tapes or imitations of their calls from many patches of
woods; you just have to try a lot. The same with Barred, but they are much
less common; it helps if you know where a pair lives. Saw-whets are really
difficult.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416