Owl Weather

January 26th - "Who wants to go owling?




This is my approach to birding with strangers

My grades were moving along well, and I had a three day weekend, so I took a whole night and a little into the next day to make a serious look for some owls.  My January big day included failed attempts at Great Horned, Barn, Barred, Western Screech and Northern Saw-whet.  I took myself up into the forest roads between Jorsted Creek and Hamma Hamma Campground to look for all of the above (minus Barn, plus Northern Pygmy-owl, and a glimmer of a dream of Spotted!)  The barometer was up, and I did something which has nearly always led me to good people - I posted on Tweeters, "Who wants to go owling?"

I lucked out and got a copilot, Jean Raglund, who was self-described as "not a serious birder", but was a wealth of information for me and good company as we meandered up the forest roads in the early morning.

Forest Road 24-2480

Forest Road 24 leads up Jorsted Creek away from the salt water of Hood Canal in a fairly deep canyon.  I thought this would be a good place to at least attempt to call in a Western Screech-Owl, or barring that, maybe one of those birds that seem to have driven them out of the area.  Nothing. 

It was interesting as we made this first stop that I started to get reminders of how to owl, just from being with Jean.  She almost immediately leaned back against the car and looked up to the surrounding branches for movement.  I rely so heavily on my ears, I forget that owls, every now and then, are a little shy!  Looking at the sky was a pretty good consolation prize, and over the course of the morning, we enjoyed dark, clear skies (for stargazers out there, I'll just say the Beehive was an easy find with the naked eye!), and a handful of shooting stars.

Our next stops farther up were along edge habitat.  FR 24 is cut by several powerlines, and these seemed like good places to try to pick up a Great Horned Owl.  I had seen old tweeters posts that included a sighting of one where the cut crosses the forest road.  Nothing.

After several such stops, we hit slightly more dense forest (although the overstory never got all that thick), where we tried and hoped for Barred and Northern Saw-whet.  When the habitat felt right, we even gave a few NOPO calls, but got nothing but quiet stars in return.  Our final stop was the Hamma Hamma Campground, where we broke our routine of driving a mile and getting out for ten minutes.  Here we walked the campground instead, and got nothing but a really good feeling that owls might like it there.

Hunter Farms



Hunter Farms - I'll be back here for geese and whatnot

The final owling stop was at Hunter Farms.  This is one of the spots in the county that has a reliable Barn Owl.  We got there as the workers were milling around in the sheds, and I let my unshy personality kick in.  I caught one of the guys in the shed and gave a hello, telling him about our efforts to find owls, and a little about my year.  We were lucky enough to get permission that morning to go peek in the barn on the grounds that has had the Barn Owl, and the two workers talked birds with me for a little bit (the Barn Owl has usually been out in the evenings hunting;  there have been geese returning to the valley, and swans on their fields).

Fun, because I couldn't see the rafters at all without the
flash.  Nothing could make a Barn Owl visible.

Jean led the way, tiptoeing into the barn, so that I could see the owl if it flushed, or follow her in if it didn't.   It didn't flush.. I waited for a while before she came back out from the barn.  Empty!  It was eight o' clock.. ish at this point, and the Barn Owl appeared to be out and about!  We gave the rafters one last look, confirming that none of the pigeons were actually owls, before shrugging and heading out the door and back up the highway towards Belfair.

Rock Pigeons - Hunter Farms

At the mouth of the Skokomish, I found a new bird for the year:  Cooper's Hawk (84).  I caught a glance of a raptor that... at one moment looked like it had a white rump... and at another moment looked like it had a red tail... and then I had to let it go.  It was too distant to call it a Northern Harrier, and it didn't come back into view, disappearing to the far side of the delta.  This added to my yearning to get out on the water in a canoe or kayak to paddle around in the delta - what might be out there??  Shorebirds? Raptors? Ducks?

Hood Canal - Union to Twanoh S.P.

We had a long morning of just one more stop.  The first was necessary because of the view:

Hood Canal from Union

We stopped and looked over some birds, and I finally had a chance to return some knowledge.  Handling raptors at Woodland Park, Jean's knowledge of raptors was deep.  Other water birds were new to her, so it was fun over the course of the morning to take a closer look at some birds - grebes, loons, scoters - we looked at them like new birds once more. 

creek outlet into Hood Canal - Twanoh State Park

Twanoh State Park was the next stop (and I found myself saying the name of the park in Keanau Reaves' voice... probably exactly like Ted.)   The birds were close and we continued to pick them over looking for new ones for Jean, and new ones for me.  The clouds combined with the pink of the sky made for a lovely scene.   On three hours of sleep, it felt even more unreal!

We stopped in at JR's Hideaway in Belfair.  A little coffee and a little food helped wake me back up!  "A little food" was not exactly true.  I had the BBIB (Best Breakfast in Belfair), a mess of potatoes, ham, and other breakfasty goodness. 

BBIB

One More Stop

We made a quick stop at Lake Deveraux, where I was hoping to find a Pied-billed Grebe, but it was gated off!  I was surprised to see a fishing hole closed this time of year on such a beautiful day!

Maybe just one more...

We saw male WWSC too, but the female
had my brain thinking of a Pigeon Guillemot!

Taking the road through Purdy allowed me to look at Puget Sound for the first time of the year in Mason County - Case Inlet was as beautiful as the other stops on Hood Canal, and we found numerous Surf and White-winged Scoters, the White-winged being a life bird for Jean!  I couldn't turn any of the distant birds into alcids, alas, so we continued down Case Inlet until it turned east and into Pierce County, across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, and home.

 

 

 

Hood Canal Shoreline from Twanoh