Subject: [Tweeters] North Puget Sound snowy owl update (2/4)
Date: Feb 4 12:39:20 2013
From: Bill Anderson - billandersonbic at yahoo.com


Boundary Bay, BC

Friday (2/1) my friend, his wife, my son, and I went ventured north across the border in search of snowy owls at Boundary Bay.? Earlier arrivals told us that the owls were perched on the roofs of buildings at a food processing plant located about a mile's walk west?along the levee (dyke in Canadianese?) trail from the 72nd St. entrance and parking lot. The walk gave us opportunies to photograph other birds along the way including short-eared owls and northern harriers.
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/W...nd_St_Entrance

Last year?the snowies perched on driftwood?along the levee during the day, which drew many birders and photographers. This year they perched in a more secure (although somewhat less photogenic) location on the grounds of the food processing plant.? We counted fourteen?owls variously perched on the tops of two storage tanks, the roof of an office building, on top of things piled on the ground, and one on the ground. ??Passing trucks did not seem to bother them.

Stanwood, WA?
Sunday (2/3) my son?was in the?Special Olympics regional basketball tournament in Stanwood. As is my custom, I drove around Stanwood looking for birds to photograph during a two hour break between his first and second games.

My wanderings took me?to the DFW parking lot at the end of Eide Rd.? Someone returning to his car?told me there was a snowy owl on the opposite side of South Pass, the body of water which runs next to Eide Rd. connecting?Port Susan Bay and Skagit Bay. I walked along the base of the levee to a spot where I could climb up on the levee and look across to the opposite bank.

Opposite me on the east bank of South Pass (which runs north-south) was a snowy owl perched on a large piece of driftwood.? There was a second snowy owl about 100 yards south of the first one.

Bill Anderson; Edmonds, WA. USA