Out on a brief walk at lunchtime in Volunteer Park, Seattle I keep my
eye on the crows.

At about 1pm the whole day roost takes to the air. Something is
clearly up (but they don't seem too angry) as all are in the air. Last
time I saw this it as (yet another) high juvenile Cooper's Hawk
looking for lunch. But I couldn't find one in or about the flock.

After some sky scanning trying to find the cause I eventually find a
large owl with big blunt face (clearly an owl not another raptor)
trying to soar but using rather slow wing beats mixed when harassed by
a single crow rather high up (a few hundred feet?). Both are heading
heading north.

With the crow in the same binocular field and close to the owl the owl
appears something like 40% to 50% bigger in wingspan than the owl.
"Half as big again" is what stuck in my mind.

The owl is uniform dull color (much lighter than the crow) with light
patch on the underside of the wing near to but not at the tips. The
wings seem "squared off". No other features stand out apart from the
owl shape -- very flat face on the front of a conical body.

I don't think too much of it. Clearly it's not a Barn Owl from the
color. Perhaps a Barred Owl, I think.

But when I get home and look up some wingspans in Sibley I found (much
to my surprise) that a Barred Owl (and similar middle sized owls)
should all have wingspans very similar or a fraction larger than a
crow. This owl was a lot bigger.

Sibley quotes American Crow wingspan of 39" so my estimate this owl
should have a wing span of perhaps 50 to 60 inches. Yikes, that's big,
I thought.

And a check shows there are only a couple of options: a Snowy Owl at
52" or a Great Gray Owl at 60".

The perhaps more obvious Great Horned Owl is 44" close to a crow's
wingspan but a little larger and the uniform buff underwings doesn't
match what I saw in this owl.

A Snowy Owl is possible but this was clearly dull uniform color
including the head, back, upper wings and lower wings and tail not
white and I didn't see any hints of barring but there was clearly the
lighter patches on the underside of the wing ends.

So going on size, underwing pattern, shape (strong blunt face and
square-ish wing tips), coloration (uniform dull color not light -
gray?) I speculate that I just saw a Great Gray Owl.

Yes, I'm as surprised as you are! I think I'm on crack too.

On possibility is it got pushed over the the Cascades given the
current interesting weather were having (with high pressure on the
east of the Cascades with a cold air mass from Canada descending an
damming against the mountains).

Not enough for me to count it but I would suggest people watch the
skies in North Seattle and northwards for a big owl.
--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com
twitter: at kevinpurcell