Damon Point — Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012

Southwest Washington > Long Beach Area

I heard last spring that Snowy Owls visit Washington and British Columbia in the winter. I didn't know this and apparently I missed a big year for them. I heard someone say it was the best viewing in over a decade. I did some research and made a plan to go to Damon Point this year. Ocean Shores got a rare day of sunshine on the 30th. I got to the trailhead at 7:45am, just before sun-up and there were already 10 cars in the lot. It's about a 30 min walk to the viewing area and the sun was up when I got there. I guess I could've been 15-30 minutes earlier to see the sunrise on the owls. I saw at least 5 different owls and there were probably more than that. It was amazing! There were about 15 people out in the morning taking pictures of them. By the afternoon, there were hundreds of people. I felt really sorry for the owls. They didn't get any rest today, people were harassing them constantly. Unfortunately, I was guilty of that as well. I tried to keep my distance, but managed to scare 2 of them into flying away. It really is heartbreaking to see animals being loved to death. Humans do that too often.