Between 3:30 and 8 p.m. - stops at Boe Rd and Thomle Rd produced only
1 visible Snowy Owl to me and a couple of birders from San Diego, out
to add SNOW to their life lists. Luckily they are going to head to
Ocean Shores tomorrow and, with luck, will see a few. I'm wondering
if the 2 photographers that Peter & Millie mentioned talking to when
they were at the Thomle site earlier in the day, saw more than 1
Snowy???

A female American Kestrel was on a power line along Boe Rd 1 Short-
eared Owl was on driftwood atop the dike at Thomle Rd. - 1 Rough-
legged Hawk was on the same Thomle field post I've see one on several
times before - Dunlin and Snow Geese were also in the Thomle field.

I went out to Big Ditch to check for SNOW and was greeted with loads
of trash that has been 'ditched' around the parking lot and up on the
dike - scanned the area several times - no owls of any kind. So after
hearing from a gal out walking her 2 dogs, that someone had stolen her
pricey dog leashes, I decided to ditch the Ditch and headed for the
Rawlins Rd to say "Hello" to some Shortears. Thanks to a big-lens
photog who had been taking pics of Shortears (possibly just one) for
an hour and a half, and to an environmental sculptor named Joe, I was
able to watch and photograph at least 2 very accommodating SEOW on
their driftwood perches. Once a Northern Harrier came in to tussle
with one of the owls and for a few seconds 2 of the owls were flying
around each other a bit, but basically they were looking around for
rodentia while perched.

It seemed to be a very slow bird afternoon/evening...

To see mostly Short-eared Owl and a few white-lump shots, check out
this Flickr set called "Shortears Make the Day":

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjzeLBmB


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net