Great Gray: good news, historic news, and bad news.

First the good news. Its still there as of Thursday (2/15) evening
(4:30? to 6ish), apparently sticking to its morning and evening
schedule along Ovenell Road in Skagit County. See Denniss or
Richard Rowletts postings as to location details.

The historic side is that tonight a local couple who keep horses in
the field south of Ovenell Road came by to deliver a horse and told
us they had been seeing the owl since at least Christmas, kind of
whats the big deal all of a sudden!

The bad news is in two parts and revolves, as usual, around
etiquette. The owl appears to be moving away from the road. Tonight
it was 200-300 to the north of the road. According to Bud Anderson
and the horse couple, the bird has usually been seen right at the
road, hunting the short grass strip on either side of the road. Bud
and I wonder if the birding pressure isnt spooking the owl. There
were at least a dozen people there tonight, though all were all well
behaved vis-`-vis the owl. Traffic control is another story. But
back to the owl: Bud says he watched several enthusiastic" birders,
one man in a car in particular, literally drive up to the bird
alongside the road until it fled. This one guy did it twice.

As for the traffic problem, the impact may not be directly on the
bird, but it certainly has the potential of irritating the local
folks, most of whom are driving proverbial pickups to the nearby
dump. Birders driving slowing down in the middle of the road or
simply not pulling off the road entirely are not being
neighborhood-friendly or smart. I kept having visions a not so
tolerant neighbor eliminating the roadblock by eliminating the bird.

So, please keep a respectful distance from the owl if it nearby; of
course, dont go on the posted property; and pull completely off the
road. End of lecture.

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Fred Bird fredbird at Halcyon.com
1249 NE 92nd St. 206-526-5671 - v
Seattle 98115 206-5226557 - fax