Snowy owl perches above Bellevue
2005-12-22
by David A. Grant
Journal Reporter

BELLEVUE -- Paul Talbott has occupied the same office in downtown Bellevue
for 13 years, but he'd never had a view out his window like the one he had
Wednesday.

Talbott, owner of TCI Inc., a general contracting company, enjoyed the rare
company of a snowy owl for several hours as it sat on a second-story ledge
just a few feet from his office.

The normal habitat of a snowy owl is the Arctic tundra and the birds seldom
venture this far south.

``It's a gorgeous bird,'' said Talbott, who first noticed the owl at 9:30
a.m. and thinks it flew away about 4:30 p.m., as darkness fell.

``He just sat there all day long. His head kept turning about 360 degrees.
He'd shake the water off his head when it rained,'' he said, noting the owl
even stuck around in the early afternoon when a half-dozen crows dove at it.

Talbott said he went online to identify the owl, which drew plenty of
attention from other office dwellers in the First Mutual Bank building at
the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast.

Snowy owls are 20 to 27 inches long, weigh 2.5 to 4.3 pounds and have a
wingspan of 54 to 65 inches. In the Arctic they mainly eat lemmings and
voles, said Gretchen Albrecht, a raptor keeper at the Woodland Park Zoo who
confirmed the bird was a snowy owl after the Journal e-mailed her a photo.

Albrecht said it is not common for snowy owls to migrate this far south in
the winter, but every few years an ``eruption'' occurs when the lemming
population in northern Alaska dips and the raptors head south in search of
food.

``In those years you get owls in odd places,'' she said ``This is pretty far
south, the far end of their winter movement.''

In recent weeks a snowy owl has taken up residence at Discovery Park in
Seattle, said Albrecht, who spotted the bird there two weeks ago. It was her
first snowy owl sighting in this area since she started at the raptor center
five years ago.

She said Bellevue's downtown owl probably is surviving on rats and pigeons.

Talbott said even though the work routine was disrupted Wednesday, it was
worth it.

``Like my business manager said, `That's the best Christmas present I could
have had,''' Talbot said. ``There was a steady flow of people who wanted to
see it. How could I refuse?''

David Grant can be reached at david.grant at kingcountyjournal.com or
425-453-4237.