> Thanks for your skeptical note about which owl--a Snowy or,
> as you aver more likely, a Barn Owl--breathed its last outside
> my office building in downtown Tacoma.

snip, snip
>
> So I dunno. That's the best we can do. Our common sense says that
> it's likely a Barn Owl, but the witnesses describe a Snowy Owl.

I won't argue that mis-identification of owls is common, but my common
sense (or lack of) would lean towards Snowy. The location was in or near
down-town Tacoma, wasn't it? Barn Owls are rare in cities, but, based on
data from last year's irruption data, Snowys in winter often stumble into
coastal cities. Last winter, most had clustered in estuaries by late
winter, but a few hung around cities all winter. Arguing against that
theory is that one would have expected a Snowy in Tacoma would have been
noticed by now.

Kelly Cassidy -- Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Box 357980, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98195
kelly at u.washington.edu --- 206-685-4195 --- 206-368-8076