Hello, tweets.

A friend and I went up to Boundary Bay yesterday. He came up here from California to see Snowy Owls, so I figured going to the best place was the best idea.

We got there around 10:30 am, parked and walked up on the levee at 72nd St. and were immediately greeted by a sea of white blobs (well, maybe that's a little extreme). But there were 19 Snowy Owls arrayed over the flats, and the wonderful thing was that the great majority were close to the dike. There is a long raft of driftwood logs piled up right next to the dike, and that's where most of them were perched, maybe 80 feet away. You can get fabulous photos with a 500 mm lens or its equivalent, perfectly fine photos with somewhat shorter lenses, and whether you are a photographer or not, it's a thrilling experience to be that close to the owls. My friend was blown away. Well, so was I!

No one left the levee or harassed the birds in any way. They were obviously watching us as we walked along. All were alert, most were preening, and I was surprised at how much changing of perches went on, birds suddenly lifting into flight and flying to another piece of driftwood. Several owls that were at a distance when we arrived actually flew into the main mass of wood and owls closer to us as we stood there, and I had numerous opportunities to photograph them in flight. The owls were so concentrated into a relatively small area (only a single bird was to the east of the end of the road) that it really seemed as if they were social. Several times an owl would lift off, fly quite a distance and then land within 5-10' of another owl (which might turn and open its beak, quite possibly vocalizing in protest, but we couldn't hear it).. It could have landed anywhere, but it seemed that another owl was a real attractant.

If you haven't gone up there yet, you really should! There were also amazing numbers of Bald Eagles, and the fields were full of roosting large gulls, almost all Glaucous-winged but with Herring and Thayer's scattered through them. Very few G-w x Western hybrids up there.

I should add that not only was it hot, it was quite cold. The wind coming across the bay just about froze us to the bone, and I'm sure we would have stayed longer than an hour if it hadn't been so windy. Bring warm and wind-proof clothing!

Dennis
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Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net