?There have been a lot of great comment's over the course of this discussion. This makes me recall when I worked in wetlands habitat management and when we would work on foot, Great Blue Heron's would often "follow" us very closely to see what we would stir up. They were anything but afraid, but rather opportunistic. The same with the raptors at one of the refuge's I worked, occasionally we would stir waterfowl off the pond's while planting, helping the Peregrine's catch a meal. Some may feel they are just "observer's", the reality is we are still part of the cycle, particularly when we immerse ourselves into the Owl's, or any other animal's environment, there will always be consequences to this, no matter how good our intention's. There's a good chance the human observer's are stirring up prey for the owl's, pushing gulls up where they are vulnerable, moving rodent's into the open, we have to consider the bigger picture, sometimes appearances are deceiving. This isn't a promotion of disregard for an animals personal space, but rather an acknowledgement that they may actually benefit at times from our being in the field. Just two weeks ago I photographed a Great Blue Heron and a Cooper's Hawk hunting on the ground together in the vicinity of may trail user's walking around them.






-----Original Message-----
From: Cindy Ashy <tunicate89 at yahoo.com>
To: TWEETERS tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Mon, Dec 12, 2011 6:21 pm
Subject: Re: Comments/Q's On Food: [Tweeters] thoughts about Snowy Owls and their aficionados




In the winter of 2004-05, while Mike P. had several Snowy Owls in his
"neighborhood" (north Oregon coast), there was one lone Snowy Owl in Newport
(central Oregon coast). While his owls nabbed mostly rats... the Newport Snowy
Owl seemed to prefer big birds, mostly grebes and gulls. I know this to be true
from direct observation almost every day it was there...I watched it hunt,
eating back on its roost, and I visited its primary roosts when it was away.

I found Dennis P.'s comparison of a Bufflehead to a pound of lemmings quite
interesting....as well as his mention of grebes and ducks (but not gulls).

I'm curious to know what these Snowy Owls are eating primarily in other areas.
Does anyone see them nabbing big birds and/or see evidence of it. The Newport
Snowy Owl very often hunted and nabbed a big bird right after sunset. Anyone
else see gulls taken by Snowy Owls? I've never heard a flock of gulls shriek in
terror quite so loudly as when the Snowy Owl was on patrol.

Cindy Ashy

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