Hello Tweeters - I did a quick search of the Tweeters Archives (which
start in 1994 and go through 2019) for Snowy Owls in Seattle and came up
with at least one Seattle Snowy Owl sighting in these years: 1996/1997
season, December 2000, January 2002, the 2005/2006 season, the 2012/2013
season and Jan 2018.
Also, here are interesting EXCERPTS from Tweeters messages from Ryan
Merrill, Gene Hunn and Wayne Weber in 2005:
Dec 5, 2005 Ryan Merrill reported:
The only big irruption year that I personally have experienced in Washington
was the winter of 1996-1997. One day that winter while visiting my cabin on
Samish Island I ran into at least 4 Snowy Owls nearby. To get an idea of
older records you can look up historical data from past Christmas Bird
Counts online. Looking back through Washington's counts there are three
years that stand out. Here I looked up Snowy Owl totals statewide and then
from a few specific counts for these three years:
1974 - 172 statewide
Padilla Bay - 79
Gray's Harbor - 25
Seattle - 8
A few years ago I remember being able to do a search that displayed the high
counts for particular species from of all the CBCs across the continent but
I'm not seeing how to do that right now. When I did that before I remember
that the highest count in 1974 was 107 in Ladner, BC, followed by Padilla
Bay's 79.
1985 - 28 statewide
Padilla Bay - 6
Gray's Harbor - 3
Seattle - 0
Ladner - 40
1997 - 66 statewide
Padilla Bay - 11
Skagit Bay (includes Fir Island) - 10
Gray's Harbor - 17
Seattle - 2
Ladner - 62
-------------------------
Dec 5, 2005 Gene Hunn reported:
Stewart & Tweets,
...For us old timers the banner year was the winter of 1973-1974. On a
day trip
to the Skagit in March of 1974 I counted 54 Snowies (which seems to indicate
that many if not most survive the winter quite well, thank you) and there
were as many as 7 at one time on the roof of Hec Edmondson Pavilion on the
UW campus plus a high count of 120+ on the Ladner BC CBC, etc. Check the CBC
records for that year. I was out of the country for the 1996-1997 flight but
it seems it was not quite as massive....
---------------------------
Dec 6, 2005 Wayne Weber reported
"...This winter, I have not been impressed by the large number of
Snowy Owls. What I have been impressed by, is how far south they have
travelled. So far, the southernmost is near Coos Bay, Oregon. However,
ignoring birds east of the Cascades, my rough count is a total of only
about 7 Snowy Owls in western Oregon, and about 18 in western
Washington. I have heard of no more than 4 Snowies in one spot
south of Vancouver (at the Nisqually R. Delta). In a major flight year
such as 1996/97 or 1973/74, there would be more Snowy Owls than
these 25 or so just in the Vancouver area.
Gene Hunn's recollection of the 1973/74 flight year is pretty accurate.
However, the total from the Ladner Christmas Bird Count was only
107 Snowy Owls, not 120+ as Gene stated. (I believe that is still the
North American high count for the CBC for this species.) In 1996,
the Ladner count tallied a mere 62 Snowy Owls, and in 1984, another
major flight year, there were 40. By these standards, this winter is
a flight year, but definitely not a "major" flight year...."
-----------------------------
Finally, here is an EXCERPT from Bud Anderson Nov 19, 2011:
..."In answer to the earlier question, I would say that we are all still
waiting to see just how big a Snowy Owl year it will be in 2011/12.
There may be just a few here in w. WA or there could be literally several
hundred that will show up, often at around the same time, and even the same
night, especially after a northern storm. We had a dozen show up
unexpectedly in a single, large field on the Samish Flats, apparently
arriving together during the previous night.
In the big years, they will be all over the place including downtown
Seattle, Tacoma and other unexpected locations...."
----------------------------------
Jane Hadley
Seattle, WA
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