We had never made a serious attempt at finding a Boreal Owl (BOOW), so we
figured that it was time to give it a try.

We were told that FR 64 in the Blue Mountains near the Oregon Border was a
good place to look (See DeLorme page 42 T7N R39E) so we headed there. After
passing FR 6436, the road became more heavily rutted (one needs a high
clearance vehicle). We drove about 1.5 miles past the intersection and
decided to park and walk. After walking approximately a mile, it started to
rain fairly hard. Since we rarely find a lifer the first try, we decided to
get the first attempt out of the way and headed back.

The walk back wasn't very pleasant. Nancy could barely see because of the
rain on her glasses. Bill was playing a tape (just in case) when a single
BOOW appeared in the road about 20 feet in front of us. Nancy could not see
thorugh her glasses but quickly got her binocs out from under her coat to
see the bird. It stayed long enough for her to get a good initial look. It
then perched in a tree on the side of the road. The bird never vocalized.
Beautiful bird!!

On the way to the Blue Mountains, we stopped at the Walla Walla River delta
and saw the following birds:

Long-billed Dowitcher (40)
Pectoral Sandpipers (10)
Least Sandpipers (2)
Baird's Sandpiper (1) (relatively late migrant)
Common Snipe (3)
American White Pelicans (19)
GW Teal, Mallard, A Wigeon
RB and CA Gulls
Killdeer

White-Tailed Deer


Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland, WA
wlafra at oneworld.owt.com