Hi All:

After a fruitless search for the Snohomish gyr midday and early afternoon, I
headed to the Stanwood area. At Boe Road, south of Stanwood, there were
several thousand snow geese and a good variety of raptors - including an
adult male rough-legged hawk, a male kestrel, a sharpie, several harriers of
both sexes, many red-tails, and a rather scruffy bald eagle that was almost
but not quite into full adult plumage. I heard a peregrine kakking & saw
shorebirds go up in that direction, but only saw a shadow that was probably
the falcon and a male harrier in the same area. The air was clear, the light
was perfect for looking at feathers, the sun was in and out of the clouds,
and there was no wind. :-)
I continued to Eide Rd, just west of Stanwood. About halfway down the road,
I pulled into a rough paved parking area to scan the fields to the west and
to check out a perched juvenile rough-leg hawk. I spotted a very light
short-eared owl on a post and two more owls interacting with an adult male
harrier. By the time I set up my scope, I lost the owls, so I admired the
rough-leg instead. Then I heard a loud rasping call that sounded like a barn
owl. As I was puzzling over that, I spotted a very light short-eared owl
heading straight for the rough-leg, giving a call that, to me, sounded
half-way between a rasp and a bark. It kept vocalizing and strafed the
rough-leg repeatedly, but flew back to the post when the rough-leg stayed
put. This happened three more times. By then, I spotted three more owls in
the air - very active, beautiful, translucent flight feathers with back
lighting from the late afternoon sun.
The shadows were dark and growing darker, so I finally tore myself away from
the owls and continued to the end of the road. There was another owl perched
near the parking area, and I could still see owls in the air back in the
area I had just come from. To the east, the jagged gold tinted top of Three
Fingers floated above a sea of gray cloud.
It was a great afternoon.

Ruth Taylor
Seattle/Ballard
rutht at seanet.com

PS: there were *two* harriers with wing tags at Eide Road, but I wasn't able
to read the tag on either bird. If you see them and can read the tags,
please report to Jack Bettesworth at jgbett at attbi.com