I hope you all are enjoying our winter wonderland...

The long range forecast came up this morning for next weekend which
will begin the 2013-14 Christmas Bird Count period. Weather is expected
to moderate by mid-week, but snow levels will remain at pass level and
also have an impacted on those counts east of the Cascades. If you're
traveling to get to a count plan accordingly.

We have a full 4 weekends in the count with both Christmas and New Years
tucked neatly into mid-week. This has had the net effect of spreading
often overlapping counts out. So, I urge folks to take a look at the
schedules and see if there's an extra count that you can help with.
Look hard at smaller counts that often struggle to gather enough
volunteers to efficiently cover their entire circle.

This is shaping up to be another SNOWY OWL year (though perhaps not as
spectacular as last season) with unconfirmed reports to at least Ilwaco,
WA on the coast and east of the Cascades into Sherman County, OR and a
NORTHERN HAWK OWL (with photos) in Moscow, ID. Lot's of BLUE JAY
reports. A western shift in "eastern" sparrow numbers (my yard, for
example, is full of _merrillii_ SONG SPARROWS and at least two
WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS).

Schedules for both Washington and Oregon are available along with other
stuff at: http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/cbc/cbc_WAOR_reg.html

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
On watch in the Seawatch
http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/northcoastdiaries/?p=1506