The Herald, Saturday March 15, 1997, page B1 (Associated Press):

Seattle - Rumor was, a great gray owl had been seen in Bridle Trails
Park, the first time one had been seen in King County in a century.
But when a subscriber to the Tweeters Internet e-mail list asked if
it were true, there was no response.
In fact, one of the birds, which normally are found in northern
Canada forests, had been seen in the park near Kirkland. But those
who spotted it debated whether to share their find.
The concern, said ornithologist Jim Erckmann, is that "so many
people will come, it will disturb it so much it won't be able to feed.
Or they could drive it away."
Two days after the e-mail message appeared, ornithologist Dennis
Paulson, a friend of Erckmann, announced the sighting at a Washington
Ornithological Society meeting. But that was about a month after the
owl was first seen.
"It's very much situational ethics," Paulson said. "Some rare
birds, there'd be no problem in releasing their location. But all of
them have a potential problem, as there are more and more birders. In
England, hundreds and hundreds of people come and trample gardens.
It's like a soccer riot."
Paulson and Erckmann said they decided the owl would be safe if they
publicized the sighting, because it seemed tame and was difficult to
locate.
Erckmann said birder visits to Bridle Trails have picked up in the
past week or two, but so far haven't gotten out of hand.
But with the Internet, it isn't always that way.
When a great gray was seen in Skagit County last year, the sighting
was posted on Tweeters, an Internet web page that discusses wild birds
in the Northwest.
"I watched the incredible rush of people up to this owl last year,"
said Bud Anderson, a Skagit County raptor expert who first saw the
bird. "People chasing it up and down the road with cameras."
Anderson himself became the subject of an Internet debate when he
placed a radio pack on the owl to track its migration.
Tweeters subscribers questioned how the radio pack would affect the
bird and whether it would produce useful scientific information.
Three other great grays have been seen in Western Washington this
winter, one each in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish counties. The
locations of those three have not been disclosed.

-end