A report of a Burrowing Owl in Renton, WA came out on Tweeters late yesterday. This is only the fourth record for King County. I missed the third record a few years ago, plus I hadn’t seen one anywhere in Washington yet, so I headed on down to Renton this morning because it may be awhile before I get another chance to see one this close to Seattle.
Burrowing Owl at the Renton, WA post office; 19 Mar 2010
I’ve probably seen a few hundred Burrowing Owls, so how was this a lifer? I’ve never seen one in a tree before. One reason I missed the last one in King County was that it was in a tree too (at least while I was looking for it), and I never even thought about looking up. It probably also didn’t help that it was on the opposite side of the field from where I was looking. I’ve seen them perched on traffic signs, hay bales, irrigation pipes, and other posts, but never in a tree — until now.