[obol] Re: Spotted Owl Adventure - Still Alive
- From: David Irons <llsdirons@xxxxxxx>
- To: Jack Williamson <jack.williamson.jr@xxxxxxxxx>, OBOL Oregon Birders Online <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 04:41:05 +0000
Jack,
While I admire the effort, I suspect that your search area has minimal
potential for supporting nesting Northern Spotted Owls. If these platform nests
are to be used by owls, my money says they will Barred Owls. I see a couple
issues with your search site.
First, the trees are rather young second growth and the forest sub-canopy seems
pretty open with lots of light penetrating the stand. Northern Spotted Owls are
for the most part old growth forest denizens and the places I've seen or heard
them have invariably been dense stands of big timber with a rather closed
canopy where very little light is reaching the forest floor. I've seen a number
of Barred Owls in habitat like what is shown in your top photo, but never seen
a Northern Spotted Owl in anything resembling this particular forest tract.
Second, I would recommend moving your search up slope. As you have surely read
or heard, Barred Owls are pushing Spotted Owls out of their traditional haunts
in Pacific Northwest conifer forests. As a general rule, if Barred Owls are
present, Northern Spotted Owls probably won't be. Barreds are larger and more
aggressive and they have been known to kill Northern Spotted Owls when the two
species cross paths. From what I've read and heard from those more in the know
than me, Spotted Owls are being pushed up slope by Barred Owls, which tend to
stay at lower elevations. Over the past decade or more, I've encountered lots
of Barred Owls in the Cascades and Coast Range, mostly at elevations between
about 800 and 3000 feet.
The most recent Northern Spotted Owls that I've encountered (it's been about
7-8 years now) were all above 3000' in traditional old growth stands that have
not been logged in modern times. The other characteristic of these sites is
that they were extremely steep sloped often in an incised draw.
I certainly don't want to rain on your parade or discourage the effort and if I
can I would hope to provide some help. I will privately send you a screen grab
topo map of a place where I found two different territorial Northern Spotted
Owls back in about 2006 or 2007. It's a very cold trail, but the habitat is
representative of the type of site where I've found this species.
Dave Irons
From: jack.williamson.jr@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2015 20:07:43 -0800
Subject: [obol] Spotted Owl Adventure - Still Alive
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
A two mile hike today through moderately steep terrain at the 2000 ft elevation
level in the cascades has breathed new life into my dream of self-locating a
nesting pair of Spotted Owl. A search of approximately 35 acres produced the
exciting number of (five) suitable nesting platforms in an area that meets
most, if not all, of the known habitat criteria of the species. This is the
time of year Spotted Owl begin pairing up and roosting near nest sites which
are thought to be selected by the males. I hoped of course to find just that -
but I did not. I am nonetheless very excited about the possibilities of good
things unfolding in this area over the next three to four months. I took
pictures of the first two nesting platforms that I encountered to study them at
home to make sure that I am not chasing windmills. Based on what I am seeing in
the photos - I believe all five platforms are good candidates for nests this
year. The thought of being able to narrow my focus to an area of less than 100
acres at this point in the adventure is a phenomenal by-product of today's
outing. I may strike out, but I am happy that I am taking a swing . . . Four
Images - NO
BIRDS:http://www.jack-n-jill.net/blog/2015/2/spotted-owl-adventure---still-alive
--
Jack WilliamsonWest Linn, Oregon
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