This small owl was spotted by one of our team members during the annual Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count last Saturday. Each year birders in communities across the U.S. and Canada spend a day in December surveying the winter bird populations in their locales. The Screech Owl is very nocturnal in habit so it is unusualy to find one in the open like this. The branch it is sitting on is hanging out over the Little Spokane River and the tip was repeatedly grabbed by the moving water which caused bobbing and ice formation. With binoculars we couldn't see why the bird was sitting there.