Date: 9/20/25 10:09 am From: Teresa Michelsen via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: [Tweeters] 50th Yard Bird
Very early this morning I woke up to resonant, solitary hoots from obviously far off in the forest. My house backs up on the pine forest surrounding Lake Kokanee in Mason County, with a very steep incline down to the lake, so you can hear quite a lot from there. Obviously not a Barred Owl, which are my usual visitors of the owl variety. As I lay in bed, I thought... Great Horned Owl. But to be honest, every time I've seen them, they've been still and silent, sitting far off in a tree. So I've not had the privilege previously. Checked it online this morning and sure enough, they're here and that's what they sound like. 😊
#50 for my "yard" list, I've only lived here for 3 years so that's pretty good. Most of the birds are wayyy up in the tops of the pine trees so I've been re-honing my birding by ear skills. My yard list includes anything I can see or hear from my yard, as well as those critters actually in the yard.
The non-bird list so far includes black-tailed deer, black bear, mountain lion (also bobcats heard), raccoon, opossum, skunk, snowshoe hare, Olympic shrew, common garter snake, Pacific tree frog, banana slug, long-horn grasshopper, Douglas Squirrel and Townsend's chipmunk + only a couple of isolated grey squirrels. All of these were actually on the property.
For anyone who knows me, I have retired and my e-mail address has changed.. see above.
