*
My father did soils surveys for the BLM in Lane County in the late 60s or
early 70s. He saw Burrowing Owls at Camas Swale, then an ODF&W WMA
in summer months. I also recall discussing the species' presence in sw Linn
County , what I think of as the "Butte Country",during potential breeding
season.
That would have been sometime fifty years or more ago.
Lars
On Apr 9, 2017, at 10:55 AM, Joel Geier wrote:
Hi again all,
In reading through the rather fun-to-read species accounts at the end of
Richard Eddy's 1953 thesis, I happened across this item:
Speotyto cunicularia hypugaea (Bonaparte)
The western burrowing owl, a curious long-legged little owl was
seen once, on July 28 [1952]. It was observed in a hay field
three miles southeast of Corvallis on the Peoria road, standing
near a ground squirrel burrow which it soon disappeared into.
This was not at one of Eddy's survey sites, but it would have been on
the way to/from his "brushy area" study site three miles farther
southeast along the same road.
Eddy also recorded Short-eared Owls twice that summer, "in the early
mornings of June 21 and July 12, flapping slowly over some wet meadows
east of Corvallis."
He also notes that Nighthawks "were one of the commonest birds heard or
seen in the evenings around Corvallis." Although their decline since the
1950s has sometimes been attributed to predation by crows on the exposed
gravel rooftops where they nested, from Eddy's account seems that crows
were also abundant around Corvallis at the time.
Lots of other intriguing stuff in here. Here's that link to the
downloadable PDF once again:
http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/34760/EddyRichardHewesJr1953.pdf
Happy reading,
Joel
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
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