West Seattle wildlife: Meet Oswold the Lincoln Park owl

| West Seattle news | West Seattle parks | Wildlife

West Seattle’s eagles have made headlines recently (both here and on TV) – but don’t forget the rest of our amazing avians – like the owl Trileigh photographed at Lincoln Park this morning:

It’s not only eagles who are increasingly active this season! Many of our forest species are feeling the energy of spring. If you keep your eyes, and especially your ears, open, you can see all kinds of life in our West Seattle parks. Here’s a photo from this morning of one of our Lincoln Park Barred Owls, named “Oswold” by one of my students in honor of young Wollet of a previous year. If you’d like to find owls, pay close attention to when other birds large and small are making a loud fuss…you may get lucky and find that the source of their concern is a nearby owl!

(We appreciate the tip – we’ve had about as much luck owl-watching as we have had whale-watching.) If you missed WSB reports on the owlet Trileigh mentioned, Wollet, check out this 2009 story.

Meryl February 19, 2011 (8:42 pm)

Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing. Meryl

S February 19, 2011 (8:43 pm)

Oswold is beautiful. Love that little owl face

nighthawk February 19, 2011 (8:48 pm)

That is an absolutely gorgeous picture. I hope I’m just lucky enough one day to spot him in real life, let alone snap a photo. Wow!

Steve February 19, 2011 (8:52 pm)

That is a cool pic and I love Lincoln Park; however, as a daily dog walker at Westcrest Park, I must say there are a lot of animals there as well. Owls, rabbits, chipmunks, raccoons are all animals to be seen there. As well as great dogs. Lincoln still rules for whales, though.

kate February 19, 2011 (8:52 pm)

The quality of the photos on this blog is just incredible. Thanks, always, for sharing.

cathyw February 19, 2011 (8:58 pm)

Wildlife photos just do not get any better than this!

A February 19, 2011 (9:17 pm)

Raccoons are nothing special. They’re all over my street – 44th. We’ve even named some of them because they are around so often.

crystal February 19, 2011 (11:21 pm)

I love him! Thanks for sharing :)

Westside J. February 20, 2011 (1:03 am)

If you’re talking a night walk on the beach at Lincoln you can often find an owl or two near the big shelter.. I have seen rats quite a few times getting into the dumpster there, and it seems like I see owls right near there at the same time. I guess they both know where to find dinner?

sushi February 20, 2011 (3:53 am)

what vivid colors!!! an incredible picture!

J W February 20, 2011 (5:59 am)

What do you mean in honor of Wollet, did something happen to him?

Trileigh February 20, 2011 (9:37 am)

JW – No, as far as we know, Wollet’s fine. But since he became an adult, he probably found a new territory – and in any case, it’s very hard to tell one adult owl from another. So maybe Oswold is grown-up Wollet! We just can’t tell.