This kind of adventure sounds neat! I can hardly wait (no sarcasm here
at all) to get to the level where I do stuff like this. Maybe in a few
years; too much basic stuff to learn first.

Bob Mauritsen
Seattle
rhm at ms.washington.edu


On Sun, 2 Feb 1997 steppie at wolfenet.com wrote:

> On reading Mark Houston's report of a Northern Hawk Owl near Spokane the
> evening of 31 January, I picked up the phone and called Steve Pink in
> Bellevue. He was game for the chase and asked Jim Flynn to come along; the
> hawk owl would be life birds for both. They left the Seattle area at 0100 on
> the morning of 1 February and met me in Ellensburg at 0400. In one vehicle,
> we motored east through the fog to Cheney, breakfasting in Moses Lake.
>
> The owl was on the campus of Eastern Washington University in Cheney
> according to the transcript of the Washington Bird Box the evening of 31
> January.
>
> We arrived not long after dawn and spent over an hour looking for the bird
> in the neighborhood of Washington and Elm, finding Mountain Chickadees,
> juncos, and the usual yard birrds. Not seeing the owl in that area, we
> broadened the search area. While driving south along Washington just south
> of the stadium, both Steve and Jim caught sight of the owl! It was in a
> leafless tree at the entrance of the Sports Center. The owl was very worn
> with ragged tail feathers and looked a little wet. It was alert, however,
> and seemed tame. We set up all our three scopes to study this subarctic
> visitor, noted perhaps, less than fifteen times before in Washington.
> Students coming and going quickly got interested. We shared our scopes and
> the story of this owl.
>
> After a few minutes it flew to some nearby trees, whereupon five Pine
> Grosbeaks appeared in the next tree! It then became obvious the owl was
> closely eyeing the grosbeaks, craning its head 180 degrees to spy on them,
> exposing the pygmy-owl like black stripes on the back of its head (it's
> thought the genus Glaucidium and Surnia are fairly closely related - both
> have symmetric ear openings and are mainly diurnal hunters).
>
> Then, we noted a singing Townsend's Solitaire below a crab apple on the
> other side of a walkway with lots of hanging fruit. It was also clear the
> grosbeaks were attracted to the crab apples as well,but, guess who was in
> the way? The hawk owl! Although mammals make up the bulk of a hawk owls diet
> in the breeding season, a marked shift to birds - as large as ptarmigan -
> takes place in winter when rodents become more difficult to obtain
> (Johnsgard, P. 1988. North American Owls: biology and natural history.
> Smithsonian). While we were there, the grosbeaks avoided the crab apple but
> flew off to another one a short distance away to feed until flushed by a
> garbage truck.
>
> What a neat experience! Northern Hawk Owl and Pine Grosbeaks, side by side.
>
> Heading west, we stopped a few times in ponderosa pines to see what was
> about. Several stops in and around the state hospital in Medical Lake (we
> wondered what was going on behind those old walls) produced Pygmy Nuthatch
> and a couple of Red Crossbills, but very few other birds.
>
> It was west now towards Grand Coulee along the "Old State Highway north of
> Highway 2 and then the main road west of Davenport. Ravens, a few Horned
> Larks and a couple of Snow Buntings were all we saw. Incredibly, we saw only
> one raptor along the entire drive to Wilbur: a lone Red-tailed Hawk.
>
> West of Wilbur, we explored the plateau country east and south of Grand
> Coulee. Finally the fog lifted a little here, making the birding a lot more
> pleasurable. Along Baghdad Road west of Highway 174 (DeLorme p. 86, B-1)
> were 200 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches along the roadside. The snow was much
> deeper here than around Cheney and Davenport; the few weedy patches were
> right alongside the plowed road. Farther west on the plateau (p. 85, B-8,
> along the section roads were two Prairie Falcons, six Rough-legged Hawks
> (where I had seven a month ago on the same route on the Grand Coulee
> Christmas Count) and a scattering of Gray Partridge (three coveys totalling
> about 40 birds), Horned Larks, Common Ravens and Snow Buntings. Really
> exciting here on the desolate, snowy plateau was a Short-eared Owl. It was
> difficult to imagine how the owl would make a living out there, but Steve
> saw a vole on the surface of the deep snow, so it seems there is life out
> there, though mostly hidden from view.
>
> Descending into the Grand Coulee, we found all the lakes frozen; that
> severely limited birding opportunities. One flock of grazing (on wheat
> stubble) Canada Geese, a couple Green-winged Teal, one Common Goldeneye, one
> coot, one Herring Gull was the bird list. A lone Northern Harrier, perhaps
> five Bald Eagles,one Rough-legged Hawk and a few Rock Doves in the sky was
> about it. Grand Coulee country in the the depth of winter now.
>
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