Anyone out there with a notion of visiting the West Coast should consider a stop in Kittitas County, Washington. Just spent a heavenly two days over there with a small group of birding friends.
Our main purpose was an owling expedition, which turned up only one owl. A hard one to see in any case, the Flammulated Owl is fairly secretive and one of North Americas smallest owls. Only 7 inches from head to tail with a whopping 18 inch wing span. After a fruitless two and a half-hours in the very cold central Washington woods, we were treated to one of the most glorious sights a birder can see.
We enticed (or should I say pissed off) the little guy with a taped voice of another male Flammulated Owl. He was in the distance, perhaps an acre away, hooting up a storm when we got out of the Mercer Island Parks Department van. Our fearless leader, Bob, had his tape deck in hand and commenced to call our small friend in.
He (the bird) appeared almost immediately - ever protective of "his" forest, landed in the top of a tall Doug Fir where we got a nice eyeful. As Bob trained a flashlight on him he suddenly swooped from the tree and circled, hovering above us, moth-like, in the light. And if that was not enough, he then landed in a baby Doug Fir not 20 feet away at EYE LEVEL!!!
As beat as I was by this time of night, I came fully awake to see this amazing, small but tenacious bird defending his turf from this group of strange bipeds who were rude enough to trick him into coming this close.
As soon as he realized we were no threat, he took off, stopping briefly to give a backward glance before silently flying off into the deep woods.
Just one of over 75 different birds that trip. What a way to spend a little time.
Oops, no HTML line breaks - as a guest I can not edit the post. Sorry about that.
I guess there should be some warning about that. I'll put it on the list. Thanks for contributing.
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- Jane Hathaway 5-23-2002 9:13 pm
Oops, no HTML line breaks - as a guest I can not edit the post. Sorry about that.
- Jane Hathaway (guest) 5-23-2002 9:15 pm [add a comment]
I guess there should be some warning about that. I'll put it on the list. Thanks for contributing.
- jim 5-23-2002 10:02 pm [add a comment]