Hello, Tweets,

After reading the litanies of all of you who have made the
pilgrimage to Mansfield to find or not find the Northern Hawk Owl, my
husband Bill and I couldn't resist trying to see it ourselves. We had
intended to drive over Thursday morning, but the snowfall in Seattle and in
the passes set us back a few hours. We decided to go in the early
afternoon, spend the night in Soap Lake and head for the plateau this
morning. (By the way, we found lodging at Notara's Lodge in Soap Lake very
pleasant and very reasonable). When we set off from Soap Lake this
morning, the temperature was about 23 degrees F, but brilliantly sunny. By
the time we reached the Waterville plateau, it was 13 degrees!

We went to the intersection of Bridgeport Hill Road (also known
as B NE) and 15th NE, but the owl was nowhere to be seen. We proceeded to
check out all the other places people have seen the owl-the farm a short
distance north, C NE and 16th NE (dogs!), and the trees in all the nearby
farms. Still now owl. We decided we needed to move on and headed back down
Bridgeport Hill Rd. This time Bill spotted the owl on a telephone pole
across the street from the farm just north of B and 15th. This was about
11:15 am. At first I wasn't sure it was the right bird-I had been expecting
a larger owl. But it was the Northern Hawk Owl (we have lots of pictures)
and we were delighted to have found it!

(Another nice bird that we found just outside Mansfield on 172
was a Northern Shrike. We saw another shrike in a tree on the downstream
side of Chief Joseph Dam, south side of the river.)

We sat and watched the Hawk Owl until we couldn't tolerate the cold any
longer and headed down to Chief Joseph Dam.

At the dam, we found the two Common Loons that have been
mentioned in previous reports and lots of ducks, but not Yellow-billed Loon.
Several of the local fisherman had seen the Yellow-billed Loon on previous
days, but noted it had not been around today.

We then drove through Bridgeport and west toward Brewster on
173, but deviating north on Moe and Grange Roads. As we neared 173 again on
Grange Road, we encountered a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings (maybe 200
birds). This was another exciting find for us and again we got lots of
photos.

Many thanks to several of you fellow Tweeters we helped us with
advice and directions. We really appreciate your assistance!

Charlotte Byers, Seattle