Hi Everyone,
We were astonished to read Russ' email, because Jeannie and I were up
in the same spot the night before and exactly the same thing happened
to us! The wolf took our bag of buffalo wings and I bet he liked
them as well as he liked Jimmy's teriyaki jerky. And that Boreal Owl
is a nasty little so and so, isn't he? We never reported the
incident because it didn't occur on April 1, but now I see we made a
mistake.
Bob and Jeannie Pollock
On Apr 1, 2015, at 10:54 AM, Russ Namitz wrote:
Hey all~
As Jimmy (James) Billstine alluded, the weather for our BOREAL OWL
search above Diamond Lake was unpleasant. What Jimmy purposely
failed to mention was that we did have an incredible wolf sighting
that evening! However, due to the sensitive nature surrounding
wolves in Oregon, I wanted to contact local wildlife agencies before
releasing any details.
We started at sunset, owling for any species we could find along the
various backroads between Lemolo Lake and Cinnamon Butte. It was
just too windy. Plus I think birds sensed the drop in barometric
pressure and the imminent bad weather and thus, were disinclined to
acquiesce to any type of solicitation.
At 2130 (9:30 pm) we drove up to Cinnamon Butte and continued up
NF-100 to about 6000' where a fallen tree blocked the road. The snow
was getting pretty deep anyway, so we donned our snowshoes and
started hiking the road east in hope of getting up to 7000' and
reaching the Pacific Crest Trail. We stopped every 10 minutes or so
and played a BOREAL OWL song.
After slogging uphill for over an hour, through spitting rain and
then snow, with blisters growing bigger with each new step, I heard a
sound off to my right. I hollered at Jimmy, "Hey!" He stopped. It
was quiet. The snow crunched underfoot as I shifted my feet. And
then, a small owl "chirped" from the right. We waited and waited.
Nothing. We decided to take a quick break since we were stopped. I
walked up to road a few yards. Jimmy got out his bag of Teriyaki
beef jerky. I heard snow crunching and saw that Jimmy was walking
towards me. I told him to turn off his light and that we could see
well enough in the moonlight. He did. We had just started crunching
through snow again when I heard the scuffle of rain gear and heard
his sharp exclamation! I looked and saw this huge wolf there in the
moonlight, standing next to Jimmy. In less than a second, the wolf
snapped up the bag of Teriyaki beef jerky and disappeared into the
woods. We were both in shock! Wow! A wolf? It had to be OR-7 or
belong to his Rogue Pack. http://dfw.state.or.us/Wolves/AKWA/rogue.asp
Understandably, I was a little freaked out, but I asked him if he was
ok and did he need help getting up (snow shoes can be awkward). He
said he was fine and started to get up, accidentally bumping his iPod
and starting the BOREAL OWL song again. After the 2nd song, I felt a
WHAP! in the back of the head. That had to have been an owl, but my
headlamp had fallen off. Meanwhile, Jimmy is still fumbling to get
to his iPod. WHAP! again to the back of the head. Immediately the
bird began to scream and pop its bill in agitation. It came down on
me a third time with thrashing of wings and talons. Jimmy finally
got the iPod turned off. By the time we got our flashlights turned
on, the little owl was gone. Shortly after, it started to dump snow
on us. We couldn't say for sure what species of little owl it was,
but it had all the fury of a Tengmalm Viking. We still had an
hour's trodge to get back to the truck. We started heading back,
elated & frustrated, dreaming of warm, dry clothes and slipping off
those blister-causing boots.
Be careful out there,
Russ Namitz
Medford, OR
