Hi Tweets...A friend and I took advantage of some decent weather today
to make the walk out Damon Point. We saw seven different owls enjoying
(?) the sunshine after some really horrid weather over the last few
days...in human terms, that is. We spent 2 & 1/2 hrs owl-watrching
then agate hunting...it was a great day to be out there. Not many
people, but those few got good views. At least three of the owls were
in trees north of the "ridge" and one was right at the edge of the
sand where it dips into that sort of valley which extends east from
the end of the inner pond. Despite coming up over the top of the dune
and finding the owl so/too close (my judgement), it did not appear
uneasy, but continued to preen and even closed its eyes for periods of
time. We backed off and sat and watched it for about 30 minutes.

After walking farther out the beach in search of more owls, we
returned an hour later to find the first bird still perched on the
same log; it appeared to be sleeping.

There is a freshly dead Common Loon out there too; it gave me quite a
start when I first spotted it at a distance...a large white body,
obviously dead....I hate to see such a wonderful bird dead but confess
to some relief when I saw it was a loon and not an owl. There were
feathers scattered down-wind, and some of the neck and the breast had
been eaten.

Dianna Moore
Ocean Shores, Wa.
dlmoor2 at coastaccess.com