GB'O'C, 'O' is for OWLS within the more general acronym, GBBC (Great
Backyard Bird Count). It has been a great weekend judging from the owling reports
popping up on 'tweeters' yet not transcending into the realm of the GBBC. I
am actually truly amazed and impressed with the entire Audubon/Cornell GBBC
site, so much information, maps, finite details, and so user friendly and
instantly at your finger tips.

With all the owl reports pouring into tweeters, I have just perused the GBBC
online site to see how we (Washington) are doing. Well, we could be doing a
LOT better by more participation. Here's a run down so far by number of
birds / number of checklists reporting:
Barred Owl -- 3/3
Western Screech Owl -- 7/6
Great Horned Owl -- 12/11
Northern Pygmy Owl -- 3/3
Burrowing Owl -- 1/1
Barred Owl -- 3/3
Short-eared Owl -- 1/1
Northern Saw-whet Owl -- 2/2

Notice anything missing? How about SNOWY OWL?!? Surely someone has been
somewhere, Damon Point (point count) even this weekend. In fact the ONLY Snowy
Owl reported in this widespread bumper crop year anywhere from British
Columbia, Oregon, and Washington is in Oregon; one report (2 birds) from a place
called Hammond. Overall and cumulative owl-wise, Washington is doing best,
rather abysmal, but certainly far better than Oregon (poor) and British
Columbia (the worst most shameful unmitigated disaster of all! Can anybody say
"Boundary Bay" ?!?).

Let's get with the program folks. It's so simple (and fun) and seamless. I
think the word "backyard" is a little misleading, maybe too simplistic
sounding to some. This is NOT a strict definition meaning YOUR backyard. For
many, probably the majority, yes, it is as simple as your backyard which is
great, but you can also go to a favorite place, spot actually, and take a short
walk around the neighborhood, park, or site NOT TO EXCEED one mile, and each
submitted separately. I take that to mean to pick an area not to exceed a 1/2
mile radius like along a foot trail or road.

For example, Hugh Jennings and I made a sortie down to sometimes very owl
rich Cougar Mountain, Red Town trailhead (Newcastle) last night for a short
walk over a couple hours (7-9pm) to just listen for whatever might reveal itself
which was one Western Screech Owl, one Northern Saw-whet Owl, and one
flyover Great-horned, not the best of nights there with the normally common and
vociferous 'big hooters' strangely silent and uncoaxable, but at least single
representatives of the potentially more difficult 'little hooter' denizens
there were with little or no coaxing at all.

The Audubon/Cornell GBBC site offers a wealth of information. I am truly
impressed. Navigation is very user friendly and clearly the designers have
tried to make it as simple as possible, even for the most computer challenged
amongst us like myself. It only takes a moment of your time. This is the last
day to count, but you can still submit any 'point' counts from past days
back to Friday, Feb 17. There should be some owling point counts out there that
can be reconstructed and submitted. Just read and follow the rules at the
GBBC site:

_Great Backyard Bird Count ? Great Backyard Bird Count_
(http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/)

Don't know what locality to enter when asked or the GBBC form doesn't
recognize it? Try the zip code. Don't know that? Go here: _County Index Map for
Viewing the Zip Code Maps_
(http://www.ecy.wa.gov/services/gis/maps/county/zipcode/zipco.htm) and navigate to the maps and keep zooming until you figure
it out. Simple as a morning constitutional. You can always be more site
specific in the comments section at the bottom of the online GBBC form.

It would sure be nice and useful to see more of those SNOWY OWLS showing up
in the data base to reflect better the significance and magnitude of this
winter's irruption. In future years, I could see more folks making owling point
count efforts a dedicated part of the GBBC, sub-header, GB'O'C, and maybe
something even evolving to contagious, competitive even as entire states vie
with one another for top owl count gold.


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Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA, USA

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what
nobody has thought" --Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986).
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