Being an old-timer I do remember this sequence of events. I recall walking
over to the Multnomah County Library in downtown Portland to see a barred
owl perched High overhead. This had been reported on the old phone tree of
long ago, before the internet.
But I do have a question, do Barred owls eat red tree voles?
On Wednesday, October 30, 2019, Roy Gerig <roygerig@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Many of you will not remember this. In the 1980s and earlier, when Eric
Forsman and Wayne Logan and others were looking at the Spotted Owl and
beginning to prove that STOC (Strix occidentalis, the Spotted Owl) requires
decadent Old Growth trees for nest structures and Old Growth stands for
their multi canopy vertical structure to feed on red tree voles and flying
squirrels.
In those days it was that the very first Barred Owls were being observed
in the Northwest, and some said it was that they had recently found their
way around the Northern Rockies and were spreading south into Spotted Owl
areas. Being more aggressive, the cousin Strix Barred Owl might be the end
of the Spotted Owl no matter what else we might do to try and save
it...hence the shooting of Barred Owls these days in some rather
experimental way, a last ditch effort to save some Spotted Owls
Regarding all of the dead Barred Owls people find on the beach these
days. Holy Crap. There must be a whole lot of Barred Owls out there.
This population increase has happened since there were almost no BAOW in
Oregon in 1990, to now. Barred Owls have hugely increased while Northern
Spotted Owls have all but disappeared, in some part because of the BAOW. I
never wanted them here, but the world keeps on changing and this change has
been much too fast
Nothing I can do about it, and so can you
Have your ever seen a red tree vole nest? No, but you have heard of
them. Like a blossom on a stem, 150 feet or more up around an OG tree, I
have seen a few.
Roy Gerig Salem OR
