Subject: [Tweeters] Lake Stevens SPOTTED OWL,
Date: Aug 13 09:22:53 2012
From: Scott Atkinson - scottratkinson at hotmail.com






Tweeters: Had a remarkable heard-only encounter with a SPOTTED OWL at Tiny's Land in n. Lake Stevens during the night 8/11. At about 1:30 a.m., we (several in the family heard the bird, we had windows open) were awakened to the whining, upslurred whistle of the female of the species, a very distinctive call. The habitat is very atypical here: a W. Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) forest about 80-100' tall, with occasional Doug-Firs and others, and some breaks. We've had many BARREDS here over the years and as recently as a couple weeks ago, so I wondered if anyone in Tweeterland has ever had experience with a BARRED imitating the female Spotted's call. I also wondered about hybrids, but the call was unmistakable. Songbird migration was clearly evident, for the first time this season, yesterday morn, right in the front yard. Along the forest edges, both a RED-EYED VIREO and a female LAZULI BUNTING appeared amidst the more common migrants. Among those, I counted at least 26 W. TANAGERS (an all-time high here), 5 BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, 4 warbler sp (including 5 BLACK-THROATED GRAYS), two W. WOOD-PEWEES and lingering WILLOW and PAC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS singly. A female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD is staying loyal to ornamental plantings my wife has put out next to the house. Otherwise we have good numbers of RED CROSSBILL (over 50 yesterday) and CEDAR WAXWINGS, and lesser numbers of RB NUTHATCH, BROWN CREEPER, and 3 HUTTON'S VIREOS. All told we had 37-38 speciesin the yard yesterday. An OSPREY visited close-in enough to give us thoughts that it might be the reason our biggest koi disappeared recently. At nearby Lake Stevens, there were 6 CASPIAN TERNS on the lake Saturday, along with single RB and CALIFORNIA GULLS. Scott AtkinsonLake Stevensmail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com