Hi all,

Carol Schultz reports on seeing a great horned owl for the first time in
her Sea-Tac neighborhood. We have a great horned owl on Capitol Hill for
the first time in the twenty years that we have lived here. We live
across from Interlaken Park in North Capitol Hill and we have
been hearing a GHO calling in the early morning for the past several
days. A couple of days ago my wife and I tried to call it in, mimicking
both its own call and that of a barred owl.

This morning the calls were so frequent and so close that I thought that
my wife was out on our front porch calling! Finally, after about 20
minutes I went out and saw the owl across the street in Interlaken Park.
I have seen several great horned owls, but this was the largest owl I
have ever seen. When I first saw the owl it was about halfway up a
sequoia. After a few minutes, a couple of crows came by to mob it.
Within a couple more minutes, they were joined by 5 or 6 more crows.
Then the owl flew up to the top of the sequoia and the crows just SHOT
off, heading out of there about as fast as they could go! :)

I was traveling south on I-5 over the ship canal around noontime and saw
two peregrine falcons on the "power towers" just west of the I-5 ship
canal bridge. The female was on the north tower, the tercel on the
south tower. Although the falcon has been frequently seen on the towers
for more than a month now, this is the first time I have seen both
together.

Tom Cotner
Seattle