Subject: Short-eared Owl at Green Lake, Seattle
Date: Nov 3 14:24:57 1998
From: "Martin J. Muller" - martinmuller at email.msn.com


Dear tweeters,

This morning (Tuesday), around 8 AM, while running Green Lake (Seattle),
several crows (Corvus sp.) were dive-bombing something in the allee of plane
trees near the Community Center. Hoping to see one or both immature female
Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) that have been hanging out here, I
paused. Much to my surprise and delight a new species for the lake bird-list
burst forth from the trees and, dodging several crows, started circling up
over the playfields. It was a beautiful Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus),
easily recognized without any optical equipment, since it flew by at no more
than 50 meters. After about four minutes only one crow was still with the
owl as they had ascended to some 600 meters and were drifting east. The crow
harassing the owl most of the time, but occasionally the owl appeared to be
turning the tables on the crow for a brief moment.
That brings the number of owl species seen in and around the park (including
Lower Woodland Park) to five: Barn Owl (Tyto alba) in Lower Woodland Park at
last year's CBC and after, Short-eared Owl (today at Community Center),
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) in December some years ago near the Aqua
Theater, Barred Owl (Strix varia) last month in Lower Woodland Park, and
Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca) during the 1996/97 irruption atop a building
across the street near the Wading Pool.

That brings us up to 160 species for this urban park. Not bad.

Martin Muller, Seattle
MartinMuller at email.msn.com