I spent my childhood on the shores of Lake Washington when Evergreen Point
was a remote area very separate from Seattle and a good hour's drive away.
In those days the area was thick with mature conifers and beaches had no
bulkheads. I remember a pair of snowy owls returning every year and using
our dock as one of their regular perches. One year, only one returned, and
then a couple of years later, the surviving owl was not seen. This would
have been the late 1950s or early 1960s. I don't remember clearly how many
years this covered but estimate it to be around five or six. We were very
sad when they no longer returned. It was always a thrill to see them. They
were magnificant and very different from the other birds we saw. We also
regularly saw barn owls, small bats, and porcupine. Occasionally we got a
whiff of skunk. I miss them all.
Suzanne Krom



Message: 11
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 22:22:58 -0800
From: Cliff Drake <cliff at cliffdrake.net>
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Snowy owl yard bird
To: Scott R a y <mryakima at gmail.com>, Tweeters
<tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <6.2.0.14.2.20051124221334.052f2630 at mail.cliffdrake.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 08:16 PM 11/24/2005, Scott R a y wrote:
>With all the recent sightings of Snowy Owl from Washington, I am
>curious to know if anyone has been able to add this bird to his or her
>yard list.
>
>Scott



I did, years ago. My next door neighbor's yard if that counts. I went out
early in the morning to look at the temperature (Very cold) and saw this
white blob on top of her topped Doug Fir. I put on my glasses and got the
binocs. Sure enough it was a Snowy Owl. By the time I got dressed it was
gone. This was maybe 20 years ago, just south of Evergreen Washelli
Cemetery, 107th and Densmore in Seattle. Wasn't in my yard but I saw it
from my back door in my Bathrobe so I count it.

Has anyone checked the Christian Science Church next to Group Health on
Capitol Hill? Was one there for a long time last time. No reason for it to
come back though. Hmm.
Cliff Drake
Seattle, WA
cliff at cliffdrake.net