Hi Tweeters,

After enviously reading about all of the snowy owls seen at Damon Point, I managed to spend about 4 hours birding out there today in the late morning and early afternoon. After a bleak start of rain and mist, the weather cleared up and it actually felt almost balmy by the early afternoon. I hiked inland to the 'lagoon', then cut over to the coastal side to the tip of the spit and then continued along the beach along more protected bay on the east side before retracing my steps. I only ran into one other person during this time. Very peaceful.

I counted a total of 11 snowy owls on the hike in, but one was flying about and may have been counted twice. Three were near lagoon, with the remainder scattered about. Twice I came across a pair of owls sitting on different roots of the same log within a few feet of one another. Once, a n. harrier circled one of the owls near the lagoon, but moved on without harrassing it.

Other birds seen include:
15 horned larks in one flock in the grass south of the lagoon and another one by itself near the end of the spit.
200+ brants (I stopped counting at this point) near the tip of the spit and in the bay
100+ western grebes (agian, overcome by laziness, I stopped counting at 100), mostly in the same region
Also red-throated loons, red-necked grebes, red-breasted megansers, horned grebes, 1 red-tailed hawk, 2 n. harriers, and 4 rock sandpipers (near the jetty by the marina/rv park), plus several of the more common water bird species. Most of the water birds were concentrated in scattered flocks at the southern end of the spit and along the more protected water in the bay which is a bit of a hike in. Definately need a scope for most of these.

Good birding,
Lonnie Somer
wheelermombi at comcast.net