You can see Snowy owls from Nisqually Reach with a good scope. We saw
one eating something the morning of Jan. 7. From the end of the pier the
tussocks of grass obscured the bird, but when we made a last ditch effort
from the base we located it. Look for something that appears to be a
dirty lump of snow. The young man working on the house was pleased to
tell us about the 50 birders that were looking for the owls last week.
The hunters didn't affect the owl at all. The hunters were out there
will about 75 mallard decoys blasting away and the owl didn't pay any
attention. The mergansers did though. Just flew around out of range. I
would hope that nobody would be shooting mergs anyway. I should think
they would be a little fishy tasting.

Incidently, watching tweeters really paid off for us. We could only
sneak about 4 1/2 hours to bird when we were in Olympia (moving my
parents into a smaller place). Because of tweeters, we were able to find
the Short Eared Owl and the Snowy Owl. Without that help we wouldn't
have known where we could spend our time efficiently. Dumb luck brought
us Barrow's goldeneye from the Bud Inlet Cafe in downtown Olympia. It
was raining and we needed a break from moving. Wanted to bird but didn't
want to get any colder (we only got power back on Sunday night) or
wetter. Sitting there eating halibut and watching the Barrows was a real
treat.

Thanks to everyone in Tweeters

Lois Schultz
lois at acpub.duke.edu
Music Cataloger, Duke University

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In Looking-Glass Land you can't get very far,
You must run like the wind just to stay where you are!
As for those whose ambition is getting ahead,
They must run twice as fast!", her Imperial Majesty said.

Lewis Carroll. Through the Looking Glass
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