Martin,

Fabulous! Hugh Jennings of ELWAS also reports seeing one about a week
ago at the Kent Ponds.



Martin J. Muller wrote:
>
> 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

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