Ellen Blackstone and I went up north today (Friday) to see if we could find
the Northern Hawk Owl.

Everyone's directions were perfect. To reiterate, we went north up I-5 to
exit 270 (Birch Bay Lynden Road) and go right (east) at off-ramp about 1-1/2
miles to Stein Road. Left on Stein (north) about 1-1/2 miles to 8699 Stein.
On the right is a large field of raspberry canes. At the south side of that
field is a grouping of evergreen and birch trees, and the owl is usually in
that area.

We got to the location about 2pm on a clear crisp day. As we were looking,
we were joined by Dan Logan and Steve & Dianne. No bird was to be seen,
though Steve had seen it on Thursday. Area residents often stopped on the
road, seeming somewhat bemused by all the attention they and this bird is
generating. They offered additional information to help our search. Steve
had mentioned that the bird is sometimes also seen along the next road to
the east (Delta Line Road)

Not finding the bird in its "usual" location, we all took off to make the
loop around the field, driving north to the main road, right along that road
until Delta Line Road, back south on it to Loomis Trail and right across
Loomis Trail back to Stein Road again. We ran into Steve and Dianne and
they hadn't had any luck. We went back to the 8699 Stein Road location,
arriving about 3:30. Looking in the trees again, we spotted an unusual bird
in one of the tree and put the scope on it. There was the bird in all its
glory. It was sitting near the top of one of the tallest trees, quite close
to the trunk.

The bird is smaller than I expected, but once we got the scope in it, we
watched for 20 minutes as it sat in the fading sunlight, turning its head
left and right scanning for dinner, and cleaning its feathers. Finally it
started getting too dark and cold to stay, so we headed back to Seattle,
satiated.

Ellen found some nice links on the net, which I include for you. It's
definitely worth the trip IMHO. Hope you get the chance to see it.


http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/northdern.htm
http://www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/FISH.GAME/notebook/bird/hawkowl.htm
http://owling.com/N-Hawk_nh.htm
http://www.wpbo.org/highlights/nhol.htm
http://aviary.owls.com/hawk_owl/hawk_owl.html
http://207.34.92.247/birdsite/brdpgs/377.htm


Chris Altwegg
--
Chris Altwegg | chris at pinpoint.net
8203 38th Avenue NE | 2206-523-6477 (office/cell)
Seattle, WA 98115 | 206-523-6401 (fax)