I meant to add this to my Blue Mts. trip report, but somehow neglected it.
Anyway, I keep thinking about it, and thought I'd post it to the group.

When we were atlassing in the Grouse Flat area of southern Garfield and
southwestern Asotin counties, we came across a series of open
pastures/meadows within a forest landscape of mixed Ponderosa Pine/Grand
Fir forests. Now tweets, think for a bit about what bird specifically
prefers a patchwork of open meadows and closed forests. Well that would
be Great Gray Owl. I've looked through Jewett et al. and Weber and
Larrison, and they only have one record of Great Gray from the Blue Mts.
area. However, Gilligan et al. show Great Grays right up to the
Washington border in this region. I understand that those maps are a bit
coarse. Everything I've read about Great Grays suggests that this area
would be great habitat. Meadows are lush, and probably brimming with
little fuzzy guys (as evidenced by healthy kestrel fledgelings here).
Does anybody know if there are recent records (since 1977) of Great Grays
from this area, or if anybody's ever looked here? And for you Oregonians,
what is the status of this species in northern Wallowa County? And are
there any tweets who live near this spot that would be interested in going
to look for them? Seems to me they 'should' be there, assuming that the
owls have read what I read :) about Great Gray Owls.

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Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html