I realized, after hearing from several of you, and now, reading Andy McCormick's post, that indeed, my concerns more center on the "research bias" than "media bias". Sounds like we out here in the West will need to be a bit more aggressive and forward-thinking, in order to be a part of the Snowy Owl research wheel that is already rolling forward back east.
Country- or continent-wide research and data needs to be combined. Also, we out here need to plan now for how we are going to proceed to get data the next time the Snowies fall out en masse here, which could really be any year in the future. Even the birds that show up in the eastern half of our state each winter, can provide us with more data. And, birds that show up in the middle of the country, have value, too.
Time to focus our interest in these birds a bit more and funnel some of our wonderful photos, experiences, observations, and results of some scientific and citizen science studies (we also need to get started on some !) into a general N. American collection. Hope some of us pick up our ball and toss it (gently) eastward, to appropriate catchers ! Of course it will take time, energy and money...
Thanks to all of you who are responding to the SNOWy topic(s), including George Neavoll, who provided a punchline for the joke I started ("What did the Snowy Owl say to the lemming?" It did indeed evoke a chortle: it was "Let's do lunch sometime" :-/
GO SNOW !

Barb Deihl
N.Matthews Beach - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net




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