I was thinking of Jerry Garcia playing Dear Mr Fantasy take us out of this
gloom, when a birder from Beaverton called early this morning and said she
wanted to see a PYGMY OWL or Great Gray. Above and out this gloom we did
not find any Great Gray Owl but we tooted out the same PYGMY OWL I saw
several days ago, then a mile down the road we got a scope on another NPYO
in a less than than 10 year old clearcut. For several minutes it turned
its head back and forth to look at us so we could see both of its sets of
eyes
'The gloom' is the thick fog Salem is trapped in. From above the fog at
Silver Creek Falls you could see the fog blanketing the Valley very well,
and see almost to the ocean on the far side. We got us out of the gloom by
getting above it into the warming sun where we found DIPPERS and PYGMY OWLS
We found a class 3 to early 4 large snag (on a scale from 1 (dead tree) to
5 (rotting and crumbling big old tall stump) with a promising looking
freshly used very large cavity in it for something the size of a Great
Gray, 40 feet up off the ground
Their first cousin the Spotted Owl will use cavities like that, or just
shelves in big old trees or witches brooms or leaning tree chimneys for
home, anything for shelter from weather above and view from predators, and
I assume Great Grays do too. I will check that snag again, to try to see
whatever it is that uses it
Roy Gerig Salem OR
