Permits in pocket, 4 of us enjoyed exploring out from Thomle Rd. on Tuesday. 4-5 Snowies and similar number of Short-eared Owls, plus male and female Northern Harriers, lovely scenery and a hide-and-seek moon, graced our visit.

Noticed that the Snowies were easily flushed when approached by any humans - it's easy to surprise Snowies that are out of view until you pop up on the dike. Speed of approach and proximity to an owl also can make a difference. As a result of the changes that the breached Nature Conservancy dike are causing, there is probably less dry area on the east side of that dike for the owls than they had and used last winter. Some things to keep in mind when we go to see or photograph the owls. So far, hunters haven't been much of a presence across from Thomle Rd. Yesterday, did find a sign of a littering avian hunter (a dead rodent up on the dike, recently dropped...)

Our 3-5 p.m. walk proved to be fascinating and beautiful. Quite peaceful and quiet, too (except for a little background traffic noise from highway 532 to the north).

Photos from Tuesday's trip to Thomle: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjD1nQFv


Barb Deihl

North Matthews Beach - NE Seattle

barbdeihl at comcast.net


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20121129/59daed06/attachment.htm