I hope you all are enjoying our winter wonderland... The long range forecast came up this morning for next weekend which will begin the 2013-14 Christmas Bird Count period. Weather is expected to moderate by mid-week, but snow levels will remain at pass level and also have an impacted on those counts east of the Cascades. If you're traveling to get to a count plan accordingly. We have a full 4 weekends in the count with both Christmas and New Years tucked neatly into mid-week. This has had the net effect of spreading often overlapping counts out. So, I urge folks to take a look at the schedules and see if there's an extra count that you can help with. Look hard at smaller counts that often struggle to gather enough volunteers to efficiently cover their entire circle. This is shaping up to be another SNOWY OWL year (though perhaps not as spectacular as last season) with unconfirmed reports to at least Ilwaco, WA on the coast and east of the Cascades into Sherman County, OR and a NORTHERN HAWK OWL (with photos) in Moscow, ID. Lot's of BLUE JAY reports. A western shift in "eastern" sparrow numbers (my yard, for example, is full of _merrillii_ SONG SPARROWS and at least two WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS). Schedules for both Washington and Oregon are available along with other stuff at: http://home.pacifier.com/~mpatters/cbc/cbc_WAOR_reg.html -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR On watch in the Seawatch http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/northcoastdiaries/?p=1506 OBOL archives: www.freelists.org/archive/obol Manage your account or unsubscribe: //www.freelists.org/list/obol Contact moderators: obol-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx