Hi tweets,

No luck finding the hawk owl Saturday, but I was fortunate to find 3 other owls. While stopped at a light in Monroe around 4:30am, a BARN OWL flew right across the road at the crosswalk, and then turned to cruise right past the car, along the sidewalk. I also spotted a WESTERN SCREECH OWL in a leafless tree along a creek near Leavenworth, and located a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL near the Hawk Owl location.

There were a few other interesting birds - a nice adult dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK on the same road, some CASSIN'S FINCHES, and a pair of what I swear were WESTERN BLUEBIRDS just north of Chelan. (I had no idea they stayed that far north in the winter). There were of course large numbers of eagles along the Columbia and Hwy 2 on both sides of the mountains, even outnumbering the redtails that I saw.

The pass was pretty treacherous both ways. Between 4 and 6am, the roads were a solid sheet of ice between Skykomish and Entiat. Going back in the afternoon, my 4x4 averaged 10mph between Leavenworth and a few miles past the summit, between following snowplows, maneuvering around a dozen spinouts and collisions, and trying to navigate through thick slush and blizzard-like conditions. I don't think I'll be trying it again (at least for a while)...

Regards,

Christine Vadai
Mill Creek, WA
christinevadai at sprynet.com