Hello Tweets,

Yesterday(September,29th,2001)my mother and I ventured to Sunrise at
Mt.Rainier, mainly in search of relocating BOREAL OWLS that we had
personally encountered on the 27th, but weather that evening was very
limited due heavy cloud cover, and snow/rain showers, and minor wind at
times, but increasing clearing. We encountered up to 3 Boreal Owls that
evening at two locations in which ALL three individuals gave their
loud,single "skew" note that was heard unconsistantly during all
observations. The "skew" call note has been the most detected call that my
mother and I have observed during ALL our observations of the Boreal Owl in
WA, and only have successfully observed the species 6 times, with most
observations, like this observation,being "heard-only" birds. We encountered
NO other owls this evening, probably due to weather conditions.

On September 29th, my mother and I were joined by Dan and Brad Waggoner, in
which we owled fairly successfully from 8:15pm-11pm, with 5 Boreal Owls at
two locations, with 1 adult seen briefly, as all birds were again noted
unconsistantly giving their loud,single "skew" call note, as on the 27th.
The weather conditions this evening consisted on totally clear skies, near
full moon, and pleasant temperatures, possibly playing a role in the
cooperation of the Boreal Owl, as ALL birds called with the exception of one
single adult , none were seen. It is believed that the light condions of a
near full moon hampered nearly all efforts in successfully observing, due to
the birds being able to recoginize our presence, but this is only a theory,
unlike a moonless night. During our visit to Sunrise as we olwed we
encountered 4 species of owls, with 10 individual owls including:

5 BOREAL OWLS
2 Northern Saw-whet Owls(heard giving their primary call, as well as one
bird that gave a partial three noted "skew" call, with observations occuring
at 1 of 2 owling locations)
2 Great Horned Owls
1 Barred Owl

Earlier, my mother and I birded Sunrise to Frozen Lake at 3pm, then back to
the upper Sunrise parking lot until dusk with a few notable highlights with
favorable weather conditions including:

1 Northern Harrier
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
1 Cooper's Hawk
8 Red-tailed Hawks
1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK(well observed flying around the upper parking lot, with
up to 2 Red-tailed Hawks nearby,before drifting down into a forested basin)
3 PRAIRIE FALCONS
35 Horned Larks
8 Clark's Nutcrackers
6 Townsend's Solitaires
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Varied Thrush
65 American Pipits
1 CASSIN'S VIREO(fairly late for this unusual location,being probably best
migrant of the day)
7 Chipping Sparrows
3 Savannah Sparrows
11 Golden-crowned Sparrows
1 White-crowned Sparrows
78 Dark eyed"Oregon"Juncos


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
GODWIT at worldnet.att.net