I walked through Watershed Park in Olympia today and witnessed a Sharp-Shinned Hawk make several passes at a pair of Barred Owls. At first the owls were perched right next to each other, but after about three passes from the hawk they separated to different perches. The hawk was vocalizing throughout (though only after making the pass) and continued to make passes at one of the owls for several minutes. The owl was continually searching to see where the next pass was coming from and seemed quite perturbed or annoyed by the attention it was attracting. The apparently flustered owl continued to move from perch to perch until it flew from view.

On Sunday I went to the Alpaca Ranch on Old Hwy 99 (between I5 and Tenino) to see the two White-Tailed Kites that Paul Hicks had posted about previously. This time the kites were perched in a deciduous shrub about 350m south of the entrance to the farm. After a while they both took to the air and circled in search of prey.

roderickgilbert at comcast.net