Well bummer Jerry! I thought for sure I would at least see YOU there early
New Years morning especially since you indicated earlier that you'd be
swinging by on the way to the Okanogan Highlands. Sounds like you put in
quite a lot of time and several visits. Everyone seems to have missed it
both Saturday and Sunday from what I heard. Disturbing. I had the bird
right there in plain sight and impossible to miss for two solid hours
(0700-0900) and it appeared to me that it was pretty much planning to stay
for a while. Caching voles away in the Ponderosa Pine was an observation I
interpreted as an optimistic clue. So, hmmmm.... I don't know what to say.
I swear, I didn't molest the bird in any way. I just watched it the entire
time from the road -- no photo chases or invasions in any other way. I will
say that if it's perched up in the tree tops of the long-needled Ponderosas,
it really could be hard to detect and there's a lot of Ponderosa Pines to
sort through! Still, if you were around there for all the time it sounds
that you were, I'm really surprised that it didn't reveal itself at least by
flying around some. It's hard to believe that it is gone from the area, but
it may have just moved somewhere else nearby. Just when I said in my message
that this bird looked like an "easy" one, it figures that in doing so, I may
well have just jinxed the whole thing.

I did receive an email from Jan and Dave Ellis this morning filling me in on
the latest goings on and I guess you must have met them. Since they live
right there, I can't imagine anyone in a better position to just sort of
casually watch and see if it returns. They might in fact be a good contact.
I'll ask her how she might feel about that and perhaps making her phone
number available but I also don't want this to become an intrusion on their
privacy. I also introduced them to 'Tweeters' email, and perhaps they could
subscribe and post updates which would be helpful for everyone interested.
---Richard

Richard Rowlett (Pterodroma at aol.com)
47.56N, 122.13W
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA, USA