I too see SEOW out towards or along the dike well west of the West 90s
parking lot, while the harriers tend to be closer & often a bit further
north. not as frequent as the East 90s, but not uncommon.

Chris Kessler
Seattle

On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 1:05 PM Ronda Stark <rondastark18 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Hi Jim,

>

> People do see Short eared Owls at the West 90 but they tend to be way out

> near the dike.

>

> I have discovered the SEOW do not like windy weather and often the West 90

> is much windier than the East 90.

>

> I will be interested to read other responses as well.

>

> Ronda

>

> On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 12:44 PM <jimbetz at jimbetz.com> wrote:

>

>> Hi,

>>

>> Have you been to the East 90? There are Harriers, Short-eared

>> Owls, Eagles, Kestrels, and

>> even the occasional Red-Tailed Hawk. Not just a few but

>> "concentrated" (common to see them

>> there this time of year and for the last 4 years that I've been going

>> there.

>>

>> However, not very far away (less than a mile or so as the owl

>> flies) is the West 90 and

>> the road from there to Samish Island. A lot of this seems, to this

>> observer, to be

>> essentially the same habitat as the East 90 ... but there is no where

>> near the concentration of

>> birds and very few to zero Short-eared Owls ... ??? I have seen

>> harriers in the section

>> between the "wiggle in the road" and Samish Island. And often an

>> eagle or a hawk ... but

>> I've never seen a SEOW in that section.

>> You would think that the concentration of just the harriers and

>> SEOWs would deplete the

>> voles to the point that the birds would move on to different places.

>>

>> Any ideas on why this is true? Especially on why there are so many

>> more birds at the

>> East 90. Yes, I get it that it is all about the voles. I just don't

>> understand why

>> the area around the East 90 has so many more voles. To my eye the

>> habitat is the same -

>> the areas between the West 90 and Samish Island has been fallow for a

>> similar amount of

>> time, has corn fields near by, has the same amount of water, etc.

>>

>> - Jim

>>

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