Hi Everybody:
Yesterday, Charlie Wright and I had a great birding day, a good antidote to
the seasonal depression that descends upon me about this time of year. A
depression due to too much holiday food, a lack of light, lack of warmth, or
something... Here's what happened.
Charlie and I left DesMoines early, and headed up to Marymoor Park, which is
north of Bellevue on the north shore of Lake Sammamish. We joined Michael
Hobbs on his weekly birdwalk there. It starts at 7:30AM, every Wednesday.
Brian Bell was there too. We had a very good walk, which was surprisingly
productive in the gray, rainy, drizzly weather. Wow, good looks at 4
species of raptors, and 5 kinds of sparrows by noon. Michael & Brian showed
us where they had set up their ladder during the "Big Sit" a few weeks ago.
They explained that they had scoped some very good birds, including Northern
Shrike from the top of the ladder. I was very impressed. The depression
was lifting.
After that, Charlie and I headed south to DesMoines Marina, where we looked
at several waterbird species, including Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot,
and Common Loon. We had good, close up looks at several Rhinocerus Auklets,
swimming under the fishing pier. From DesMoines, we headed south to
Commencement Bay. We had heard that a Snowy Owl had been seen near
Alexander Avenue, down in the industrial area. We missed this bird, which
would be a lifer for us both, but did some interesting birding in that area
near the Blair Waterway.
By now it was 3:45. What to do? Give up for the day? Charlie suggested we
should go owling, but I was supposed to have him home to his house for
supper.
We headed north along Dash Point Road to Dumas Bay in Federal Way, turning
off Dash Point at 44th Ave. At Dumas Bay, we carried our "Owling Kit" down
to the sound. The owling kit rides in my car at all times. It consists of
a small boom box, a big flashlight, and a series of tapes of owl calls. I
took two tapes w/ us on our walk yesterday afternoon. One tape has Western
Screech-Owl, & Northern Saw-whet Owl. The other had Barred Owl & Northern
Pygmy Owl. The habitat in the park is thick, deciduous woods, near a
wetland. The weather was cloudy & drizzly, with temp about 45 degrees.
There was very little moonlight, but lots of reflected light from the
clouds.
We played all 4 owl calls. By 4:50PM it was very dark, and we saw on a park
bench in the woods and played the Saw-whet Owl tape. Pretty soon we hear a
Western Screech-Owl. It answered from fairly close, and we heard it getting
closer and closer. We could see a bird flying. Finally, Charlie turned on
the big flashlight. There sat a Barred Owl about 15 feet away. Wow. We
walked around and got good looks at him. What a thrill, because this bird
was a lifer for me, and it was the best view that Charlie had seen of Barred
Owl. We figure we had both owls very near to us and we were viewing the
Barred Owl at 5PM. Afterwards, I thanked Charlie for shining the light on
the owl when it perched in the trees. It was a great birding day! I am not
depressed anymore.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines