Subject: [Tweeters] zip trip to the Samish - Tues. 3/8
Date: Mar 10 21:47:47 2011
From: Barbara Deihl - barbdeihl at comcast.net


Driving through one rain squall near Marysville before breaking
through to blue sky, sun and a few dark clouds in Skagit Co., I did a
quick drive around Fir Island looking for Snow Geese and swans on the
ground (found a few small pockets of swans, but no geese), before
heading for West 90 for the SEOW Show (via Edison - no Merlin).
Arrived there at about 5:45 p.m.

I found a few owls hunting to the south and west of the parking lot,
along with a few Northern Harriers - surprisingly I saw one owl run
off a harrier instead of the usual other way around. The owls were
down (to the ground) and up a lot. From the path, I couldn't tell if
any owls or hawks got prey. Watched one owl fly to the ground to the
SW, about a third to a half the way out to the dike, on a strip of
ground between a couple of the little pondlets. I was able to watch
it and even get some digiscoped shots of it looking in all directions,
for prey, I assume. It stayed there for a good five minutes. Too bad
none of the honkin'- at $$-lens folks was there for a shot of this owl -
it was marvelously camouflaged in the grass and cattails.

Best thing of the watch was seeing one owl hovering at different
levels for between 3 and 15 seconds each time. This went on for about
3 minutes, with it dropping to the ground sometimes and changing
levels at other times. I was amazed at how quickly the usual slow-
flapping wings could beat, keeping the bird nicely in place.

Only heard a couple of weak bark calls from the owls and a couple of
high harrier whistles.

Two other birders, Andrea and Joan, mentioned having seen a
Roughlegged Hawk, some Red-tailed Hawks (I saw some, too) and an
immature Peregrine with a non-Dunlin, white-ish prey bird. The
Peregrine was in the field to the east of the W-90 parking lot.

Left West 90 at around 6:45 and headed toward La Conner, and points
south, hoping to see a Barn Owl flying - saw one at around 7:40,
flying over a field (near the road) near the intersection of Dodge
Valley Rd. and Chilberg Rd. Yahoo!

Missions accomplished! And no rain! A fine evening.


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net