Tweets - 10 of us gathered a few minutes after 6:30 a.m. yesterday on a
cool, mostly sunny morning. The birding was good, but not great - many of
the birds were somewhat hidden and hard for people to see. We spent a lot
of time birding by ear. However there were some good sightings:

Green Heron 2 nice looks, above weir early, below
weir late.
Cooper's Hawk? Large accipiter flew across dog meadow
R.-breasted Sapsucker 2nd nest hole found, near RC dock
Vaux's Swift At least 2
Warbling Vireo At least 6, singing
American Pipit One landed on grass soccer fields
near snag row
Orange-crowned Warbler Quite a few, with some good looks. Many
singing.
Townsend's Warbler Female SE of Mansion

Absolutely huge numbers of SAVANNAH SPARROWS were about. I think if you
were to be able to accurately count the total number in the park, it would
be in the high hundreds. There get to be so many, in so many places, that
you just stop counting at all.

And now the saga of the GREAT-HORNED OWLS. Tuesday morning, I got a call
from Mike Crandell, King County Parks Resource Coordinator. A baby GHOW
was found on the ground, about 500 feet south of the nest. It was near the
kid's play area and restrooms - not a great place for a baby owl to spend
the day! They called in a wildlife veterinarian, who found the chick to be
healthy and unhurt. However, it is about 2 weeks from fledging. Parks
staff moved the chick to the base of the nest tree where it remained
Tuesday.

Mike asked me to monitor the chick Tuesday night to see if it was being fed
by the parents. So I headed down at 10:00 p.m. Tuesday night. It took me a
long time to find any activity. The nest appeared empty, there were no
chicks on the ground in the nest tree area, and no adults.

After fruitlessly searching for about a half-hour, I heard some screeches to
the south that sounded reminiscent of Barn Owl. Thinking these might be
calls from a young GHOW, I went to look. (After all, the worst that could
happen was that I could find a Barn Owl instead). I heard these raspy
screetches from at least two locations simultaneously, but I couldn't find
anything. Hearing a noise further south, I started walking down the path,
only to be scared witless by an extremely close, extremely loud hiss. I was
about 10 feet from a chick, and the chick was puffed out hugely. My first
thought was actually that I had come too close to an angry Raccoon! But
then I recognized it as a GHOW chick. It was bravely clicking it's bill at
me.

I walked on for about 100 yards, and stopped where I could watch the
youngster. Very soon after, I saw an owl fly towards me and land in a tree.
I put my flashlight and binos on it, and the adult GHOW and I warily
observed each other for a few seconds before I turned off the light and hid
in the picnic shelter.

I could see the young owl, and even better it's shadow on a fence. I waited
perhaps 15 minutes. Finally, I caught sight of the adult owl flying low
towards the baby. The adult did not land next to the baby, but disappeared
into a nearby tree.

Having decided that the adults were attending the youngster, I decided to
head home (it was almost midnight). I did make a brief stop at the
windmill, where my pathetic attempt to imitate a BARN OWL illicited "Hsssk
Hsssk Hsssk" calls from within the windmill.

Wednesday morning, Parks personnel found not one, but two juvenile owls on
the ground, well away from the nest site. A decision was made that the
young owls would not be safe spending their days on the ground in the busy
mansion area, so both were captured and turned over to the Exotic Pet and
Bird Clinic in Kirkland to be fed and cared for. The intention is to
release the owls back into the wild, and an expert at GHOW rehab is being
consulted.

Our birding group missed the Wednesday morning excitement, so we were unable
to add GHOW to our day lists.

We did have 57 species for the day, though, and 68 species for the week.
The year list, adding BARN OWL, VAUX'S SWIFT, WARBLING VIREO, NASHVILLE
WARBLER (seen Monday), and WILSON'S WARBLER (heard Monday), is now 108
species.

== Michael Hobbs
== Kirkland, WA
== http://www.scn.org/fomp/birding.htm
== hummer at isomedia.com