[obol] Short-eared Owls, Vancouver Lake, WA

[Jim Johnson]

Must be a good year for SHORT-EARED OWLS around here. During a late
afternoon walk through state and county lands just southeast of Vancouver
Lake, I saw at least six Short-eareds hunting over fields east of La
Frambois Road. To get to the area take La Frambois Road toward Vancouver
Lake and park at the first pull-out/gate on the right after the first cattle
guard. There is a sign just off the road that says "South Vancouver Lake
Wetland Restoration". Walk around the north end of the "restored" wetland
and follow the track that parallels a set of high-tension power lines. 

The owls were flying over and feeding in fields which were mowed this fall,
but have had some regrowth since then--the veg is still pretty short. There
were lots of Great Blue Herons in these fields and a few Northern Harriers
feeding here also, so the rodent population must be pretty good. I could see
some owls from La Frambois Road, but they were distant. One flew high
overhead as I walked home on the road.

There is also a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK hanging out just east of the owl fields
toward Fruit Valley Road (near the large white petroleum tanks), and I had
an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER in the roadside vegetation on La Frambois Road
near the sewage ponds. 

For those who are map literate and have respectable bandwith, this URL will
show you where the Short-eared Owls were feeding:
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=45.66109&lon=-122.7057&size=m&u=5&datum=
nad83&layer=DRG. GPS users can get the coordinates from the URL or from the
site.

Jim Johnson
Vancouver, Washington
jt_johnson at comcast.net