>The complete absence of Snowy Owl reports from Bellevue and other
>Eastside communities would indicate *something* to me. Perhaps SNOW
>prefer the coast? Perhaps they prefer urban to suburban? Certainly
>there are enough eyes out here, so it isn't that they weren't seen.
>
>== Michael Hobbs

My hypothesis is that the city records reflect birds that are migrating
south near the coast (thus more in Seattle than Bellevue; also perhaps more
in Seattle than other coastal cities just because there are a lot more
birders there) and temporarily find themselves in quite inappropriate
habitat. It sounds as if most of them weren't present for long. I would
assume that most of the owls will stabilize at coastal or near-coastal
localities, where there are not only rats and voles but a lot of tasty
water birds.

In 73-74, however, there were at least several birds that spent the entire
winter on the UW campus. From my office, people could look through a scope
at one that roosted on the Fisheries Building just about every day. This
bird obviously found enough to eat right there, perhaps subsisting on rats,
pigeons, and water birds from the ship canal.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
web site: http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html