Hey tweets, I was going through my records today and discovered that I had
failed to include the exact location of the northern hawk-owl seen last
winter near Ferndale (?). Can anyone tell me the name of the road near the
raspberry bushes and not far from the owl perched in his favorite evergreen
tree?

FYI, John and I drove up to Roberts Bank yesterday to pay a visit to the
IVORY GULL. We left Seattle at 5 a.m. and arrived in Deltaport just at
dawn. A local birder we encountered pointed out the bird's favorite barge
(there is *nothing* like local knowledge) and escorted us to it. He then
showed us the coil of rope behind which the bird liked to hunker down. No
bird in sight. As I slowly but steadily congealed in the cold, I felt kind
of like the time I attended a political meeting and a speaker got up to
introduce the celebrity of the hour: a guy who had stood *this close* to
Ronad Reagan one time. Of course, there was no Ronald Reagan in sight. Just
the guy who had met him. But everyone in the audience clapped wildly just
the same.

Luckily, after about an hour, the IVORY GULL, who had been lurking on the
far side of the barge out of view all the time, decided to pop up next to a
crab pot on the barge. So we got a good look before he hopped back down
again. All we birders on the jetty were frantic to walk out onto the barge,
but we never could get permission. One of the boatmen on the tugs did agree
to haul people's cameras out to the end of the barge and take pictures. We
were eying some great video shots when the gull popped up again and stayed
in full view for at least 20 seconds. Then down again for a long, long
time. John and I left for Reifel right about then, so we missed the longer
views described by other tweeters. But still we felt fully satisfied.
Definitely better than the forlorn birder we found on our way back home. He
was sitting on a log with his head hanging down - he had missed the gull by
15 minutes and now it was gone. For his sake, I hope it returned to its
barge to roost again for the night. - Connie, Seattle

csidles at mail.isomedia.com