I strongly agree with Kelly on this matter. I was actually quite surprised that the owl on Capitol Hill was picked up, as it obviously was being a successful forager, there are no Snowy Owl predators around there, and it seemed unlikely that any people would harm it. Sure, it's not natural habitat, but many Snowy Owls end up in cities (usually on roof tops) during invasion years, and if they can't forage successfully, they move on.

That's what Snowy Owls do - they perch all day in one spot and go out hunting in the evening. To say that an owl should be picked up if perched in one spot for any length of time is not only inappropriate but should be discouraged very vigorously by both the law and public displeasure, as long as the bird isn't obviously ailing or injured.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle, WA

On Nov 16, 2012, at 12:00 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:41:10 -0800
> From: "Kelly McAllister" <mcallisters4 at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Snowy Owl - Port Townsend
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>, <cgluckman at aol.com>
> Message-ID: <04F2C20BB74E484BA15CB0A5371EE2C2 at KellyPC>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> I stood at about 75 foot distance from this owl from 11:30 until 4:30. At 4:30, a truck pulled up on the other side of the channel that goes into the marina. People got out and a guy wrapped what appeared to be a beach towel around his neck started clambering over the old pilings leading out to where the owl was perched. As he got close, the owl flushed and flew down the shoreline to perch on pilings associated with the old ferry dock, a well known Bald Eagle perch. I could only surmise that the guy was intending to throw the towel over the owl, probably to get it to rehab for some care and feeding. I remember, vaguely, a mention of the Sarvey policy to capture owls after a certain number of hours in one place, as though an inactive owl is always a starving or otherwise ailing owl. If this is really what people are thinking, I???m aghast. I didn???t feel that this particular owl was exhibiting unusual behavior for a Snowy Owl. Lengthy periods of loafing seems to be the norm !
> for a Snowy Owl when it is unburdened by adoring throngs, isn???t it? In any case, I could only view the close approach as strange and troubling.
>
> Kelly McAllister
> Olympia, Washington





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