My ability to find birds is closely related to seeing others watching something
The pileated pair I heard and was looking around and spotted a man standing behind a tree, bins in hand. I carefully made my way over walking a good radius away from the direction he was looking. I then saw one pileated and he told me about the second. So I moved over further to get a better angle. Did the old moving up in line with trees hiding me before popping out from the side. If it hadn't been for the gent, no chance o me seeing something. So a belated thanks to all to pass on friendly information.
The barred owl was easy to find. A plethora of cars all parked up in a strange location (no carpark, all on the side of the road). I got out, followed their eyes and hey presto - one owl.
There was only one spot for full body views with no branches and most people took turns taking pics and then moving on - with one exception. One gent (big Canon, bracketing like fury, probably fast 300mm lens) took over the spot and stayed there for at least 200+ shots. Fortunately I was able to shoot over him (I'm 6'2" using 500mm CAT, light and easy to handhold, thank you Sony). But there was quite a queue by the time I left for the same spot.
I did get the impression that some of the other photogs were getting frustrated.
Graham