Between 3:30 and 4:15 this afternoon. there were at least two, probably 3 and possibly 4, Snowy Owls visible from farm roads in the Hastings/Vermilion area. For three of the 4 sightings, the birds were perched on irrigation equipment. On the 4th sighting, the bird was perched on a roadside utility pole, then flew to a tall, mid-field power stanchion in response to the close passing of a school bus. None of the birds were heavily barred; most had some fine barring on the back, and little on the head. One in particular had almost no barring. Locations were such that there was no difficulty in spotting the birds: on the north side of 190th, east of hwy 52 and west of Emery, on irrigation equipment--after several minutes, the bird flew off east/notheast; on the east side of Emery, @ 1/2 m. north of 190th, on a utility pole---this bird flew east to a power stanchion in the field; on the east side of CR 47/Northfield Blvd. just 1/4 m south of 180th, on irrigation equipment; on the south side of 180th, just east of Hogan, also on irrigation equipment. Presumably, the birds are finding the food good in this area; let's hope that nothing disturbs them and distracts them from the business of hunting. Linda Whyte ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html