?Dear Tweeters,

Okay, on e-Bird, I see sixteen "thumbtacks" for Snowy Owls in King County for 2011-2012, and six in Skagit for the same period. Granted, as some folks have pointed out, there are way more birders in King than in Skagit. Still, doesn't Skagit have better habitat for Snowy Owls than does King??Also, there?many birders from King and elsewhere who come to Skagit every weekend.?Skagit is thinly populated compared to King,?but it is well birded. Not that many birders go on long junkets to King County for the birding (unless some rarity turns up), although many?birders do exactly that in Skagit. For example,? most of the birders I bumped into this past weekend in Skagit were from points south.

?I myself have pounded the pavement--make that weedy mud--most assiduously, all throughout this past Snowy Owl invasion, and barely scraped out two Snowy Owl sightings in that whole period, despite doing my level best to find them here--motivated as I am by the listing mania.

David Hutchinson brings up an interesting point. Maybe it's the Bald Eagles. Or, maybe it's more intensive?hunting here on Skagit's seaside flats. Maybe it's something else altogether--but I am convinced that this invasion (and its?echo or reverb)?has skirted Skagit.

By the by, it should be noted that previous Snowy Owl years have brought many of these birds to Skagit. The paucity I suggest refers only to the present invasion. Fondly do I?remember seeing eight of them at the West Ninety one day in 1996.

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA

garybletsch at yahoo.com

"Nun," sagte ich, "wenn ich ein Taugenichts bin, so ist's gut, so will ich in die Welt gehen, und mein Glueck machen." Und eigentlich war mir das recht lieb, denn es war mir kurz vorher selber eingefallen, auf Reisen zu gehen, da ich die Goldammer, welche im Herbst und Winter immer betruebt an unserm Fenster sang: "Bauer, miet' mich, Bauer, miet' mich!" nun in der schoenen Fruehlingszeit wieder ganz stolz und lustig vom Baume rufen hoerte: "Bauer, behalt' deinen Dienst!"