An Irruption of Owls

Snowy Owls are invading the Northwest. For the last few weeks there have been daily postings on Tweeters, our local birding listserv, on dozens of Snowy sightings: Nisqually Delta, Ocean Shores, Skagit, the Columbia, Pt. Angeles, Edmonds, even four sightings inside the Seattle city limits. Two weeks ago an owl was seen briefly downtown at 4th and Madison. This past weekend there’s been one reported in my next door neighborhood, the U-District (around 17th and 45th, if you want to look--I haven’t been able to find it.). Today I saw the Discovery Park owl, which is a cooperative bird and easily found.

About once a decade we get an invasion, or more properly, an irruption of Snowy Owls here. The common explanation is that the lemming populations crash, and the owls, especially young ones, scatter south. There is some research questioning this assumption however, and weather may be more a factor. At any rate, the last time we saw masses of Snowy Owls in our region was back in 1996-1997.

I recall an irruptive year in the late 80’s when you couldn’t scan a farm field in Skagit Flats without seeing one or two white lumps that were owls (and not white shopping bags, which I sometimes suspected were posted as decoys). At Boundary Bay one day a scan with a spotting scope revealed 13 Snowy Owls! I wasn’t paying much attention during the last cycle, but I am this time. The number of sightings, especially in Seattle, are unprecedented.

I’m not very good at finding rare birds on my own, so I rely on an alternative, proven methodology—find the clutch of tripods and binocular-clad people, and look where they’re looking. They were looking at a pile of gray logs behind the Officer’s houses in Discovery Park, on top of which perched a handsome, black-speckled first year Snowy. Two civilians, clueless about the bird, walked right by the log pile and spooked it. It flew to a nearby rooftop. Much as I was annoyed at the disturbance, it was a rare treat to see the bird in flight.

Sightings of birds like this take me, as they often do, to my touchstone birding experience, a summer 20 years ago spent as a tundra bird research volunteer in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There Snowy Owls stood as sentinals on grassy hummocks, white dots on the horizontal landscape. They were immobile for days, to the point you could rely on them as landmarks. . I thought of them as the epitome of patience, unlike their restless cousin, the Short-Eared Owl. A nest of the latter was on one of our study plots, and they were mostly seen airbourne in their mothlike flight. I think in 8 weeks I saw a Snowy Owl take flight exactly once.

Our Discovery Park Snowy is the most accessible owl in the region, a rare opportunity to see one fairly close up. Park in the South parking lot off Emerson, take the paved path to a set of stairs on your left, which takes you into the Ft. Lawton housing area. The pile of gray logs is off to your right—that seems a reliable perch. Other times it has been seen on top of one of the yellow houses. Or look for the band of birders. Be respectful of boundaries and stay off of lawns—this is private housing, despite the public park setting.

Comments

[Karen]

Thanks for the helpful tips on findy the snowy owl in Discovery Park. What an awesome sight...