At the monthy WOS meeting last night, Dennis Paulson let out that there
has been (and presumably still is) a Great Gray Owl at Bridle Trails
park (on the Bellevue/Kirkland line, bounded on the West by 116th Ave,
on the East by 132nd Ave, and on the North by 65th St.) This is an
equestrian park (horse trails) and is VERY muddy. Wear boots.

I went there today, and walked around in the woods for about an hour.
Needless to say, I did NOT see the owl.

My questions are:

1) Does anybody have more information about where this owl might be
found in the park?

and

2) How does one look for a Great Gray? Are some times of day better
than others? Would the owl be flying? Roosting? How high up? What
kind of tree? Where in the tree? Do they call? Do they like thick
growths of young trees, or more open growths of older trees, or open
blow-down areas, or wet areas, or what? Are they extremely wary (i.e.
do you have to belly-crawl silently around the park to have any hope?)

Today was very much a case of blindly looking for a needle in a
haystack. I know where the haystack is, and I know what a needle looks
like. But I don't know have a clue what to do.


== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland WA
== mikeho at microsoft.com