I don't think that there is any good evidence that there are more Snowy Owls
in the Seattle area than in other locations on the west coast of Washington.
First, there are many more birders and casual observes in Seattle than in
other locations, so there is a much denser population of people looking for
Snowy Owl's than elsewhere in Washington. Second, Skagit County is big, and
chock full of farm land and wetland, much of which is inaccessible by foot.
Third, it isn't entirely clear whether some of the Seattle area sightings of
Snowy Owl's in different locations aren't some of the same birds. For
instance, the Republican and 16th ave sighting earlier this week was not
locatable yesterday mid-afternoon, but the nearby Queen Ann bird was; same
bird, or a different one?



"Dear Tweeters,



Today (18 November 2012) a Snowy Owl was at Hayton Preserve on Fir Island. I
can't figure out why Skagit County has been so apparently unattractive to
this species during this recent go-round. If I am not mistaken, Seattle has
had more Snowy Owls than Samish Flats and Fir Island put together. Anyway,
it was nice to get some fairly close looks at this owl, which had a goodly
amount of black marking on it.



Yours truly,



Gary Bletsch



Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA"