This morning I met a group of owlers off the 2:10 AM ferry from Seattle
Audubon for an owling adventure on Bainbridge Island. The weather forecast
wasn't in our favor, and held true. Temperature started out warm at 47
degrees, and remained so until sunrise. The barometer was at 29.65, rising.

Rainfall during the night was over .05 inches.



The first stop started out well enough under partly cloudy skies. A BARN
OWL flew by us twice and perched in a distant tree in response to our calls.
We all enjoyed good views of this bird flying as well as perched.



The second stop continued with a BARRED OWL that flew in silent and remained
for a close visual.



>From here, the weather turned, as did our ability to detect owls. A steady
rain developed which shut down all owl responses at the next six stops. It
wasn't until the rain stopped after 6 AM that we finally were able to get a
NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL to respond with several wail calls from the top of a
cedar tree. Despite a dedicated search, we could not see this bird.



The next stop produced a pair of caterwauling BARRED OWLS, one of which
provided some close observations. It then started to rain again..



Off-Island, we had a male PEREGRINE FALCON at the Agate Pass bridge on our
return as a consolation prize for not finding any owls..



In all, six owls of three species.





J. Acker

Bainbridge Island, WA

Owler at sounddsl.com