On Tue, 19 Nov 1996, Janet Hardin wrote:

> Tweeters:
>
> On 14 November Michael Price suggested
>
> >So --once a winter-- why not see how many Snowy Owls (SNOW) there actually
> >*are* in the region on a given day or within a given week?
> >
> >Why not a dedicated Sunday, or a Sunday-to-Sunday period (preferably in the
> >early winter before the usual mortality begins to bite; that's why, along
> >with territorial constraints, a CBC total wouldn't be as inclusive) where
> >people visit the known SNOW sites and count them, then tally the counts?
> >
> >It also may be useful to age them as well as count their numbers, if
> >possible, to get an idea of the age/sex ratios in the region.
>
> I'd like to second his motion. And I wonder why I haven't seen any response
> to this. Say, Tweets -- it's another excuse to go birding! Of course, it
> might snow Kelly Cassidy under with more locations to be plotted ...
>

I like the idea in priciple, but wouldn't want to organize it. It takes a
lot of manpower (I have a feeling Mike Price's idea of a "dedicated
Sunday" might prove incapacitating for the average Tweeter). Much of the
area is covered by Christmas Bird Counts, which should provide a pretty
good picture of the distribution and abundance of Snowies.

I do like Mike's idea of keeping track of age and sex of sightings.
Unfortunately, while I know it is possible, I don't know how to do it!
Can anyone help? I know females are darker than males, and first year
birds are more heavily marked than adults, but between the extremes of
nearly pure white (=ad.male) and very dark (= 1st yr. fem). I am lost.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu