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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2017)
26 Wednesday, March 29, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tales from a Sisters Naturalist by Jim Anderson Flabbulated owls really get around My old pal from Sisters Country Conrad Weiler and his dear wife, Joan, hit me with a wonderful surprise a week or so back. They sent me an email from Panama. There’s ol’ Conrad, stand- ing in the bow of a ship car- rying him and his lovely wife through the Mira Florues Lock, just before they went on a tour of the Gamboa National Forest. As I sat in front of my faithful old MacBook OS10 reading the mail and wishing I were there with them, the name Gamboa went bounc- ing through my ancient brain and with it came an image of Rebecca Goggins, Forest Service researcher. Through banding baby flammulated owls, Rebecca and other researchers discov- ered the owls spend their win- ters in Panama, principally in the Gamboa National Forest. Then up popped Jane Stevens, retired wildlife rehabber living in Sisters with her husband, Bill. Jane was holding a baby flam that a wood-cutter presented to her. He found it in a tree cav- ity in a dead lodgepole he felled for firewood near Lava Top Butte, on the east side of Hwy. 97. The little flammulated’s a ringer for the Western screech owl, but has jet-black eyes. Screech owls have yellow eyes. While screeches live on small rodents, flams don’t give a hoot about mammals; they live on moths, beetles and crickets. Dead trees, especially snags, carry a red flag for firefighters, but they also have “Home” written all over them for woodpeckers, small birds and even bats. When snags are removed from the forest without consideration as essential wildlife habitat, that creates serious problems for cavity nesters. When an area with lots of bug- or fire-killed trees is opened for wood-cutting it should be inventoried for wildlife trees (trees with cavi- ties already in them) and those trees marked as wildlife trees. It also becomes the respon- sibility of the wood-cutter to look over each tree he wishes to cut to ensure it isn’t already keeping someone else warm and cuddly. Reliving those wonderful days working with Jane and the USFS on owls and wild- life habitat I began to laugh, then laugh even harder as more memories came flood- ing back, and at that point my wife, Sue, became alarmed and came into my office to see what was going on… “Do you remember the day OSP called me and asked if I would fly the baby flams Jane was caring for back to La Grande…?” I said. Then Sue started to laugh… It seems a different wood- cutter in La Grande took the baby flams from a nesting cavity near where he was cut- ting wood, and brought them home, but his neighbor turned him in for stealing them from Mother Nature. OSP cited him, took the baby owls away from him, then formed a patrol car relay and sent them overland to rehabber Jane Stevens in Bend. Then the next day, Rebecca Goggins, the researcher who was studying the owls found them missing and called OSP. They realized what they’d done and told her not to worry, they’d get them right back. OSP then called me and I ran over to Jane’s, grabbed up the owls, and headed for the airport. I called my young friend Jeff Cooney, who was studying to be a wildlife vet- erinarian to see if he’d like to go along. I contacted a pal who owned a lovely little Aeronca Chief airplane I loved to fly, and Jeff, the two baby flams, and I took off for La Grande. Rebecca met us at the airport and she and Jeff whisked the babies back to their tree cav- ity home where they were accepted by their parents. Little did the parents real- ize the Great Adventure the two nestlings had been on in less than 24 hours. A 150-mile relay in patrol cars, then to a wildlife rehabber, then packed off into a noisy airplane for another 150-mile trip back home and waiting parents. Who says owls don’t give a hoot... The Nugget Newspaper Crossword By Jacqueline E. Mathews, Tribune News Service — Last Week’s Puzzle Solved — This Week’s Crossword Sponsors WELL PUMP SERVICE Pump & Electrical Contractor PRESSURE TANKS • CONSTANT-PRESSURE SYSTEMS FREQUENCY DRIVES • MOTOR CONTROLS • PUMPS A Division of Sisters Owned CCB#178543 24-HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICE Zach 541-420-8170 FAMILY FRIENDLY DELICIOUS PIZZA, FRESH SALAD BAR, BURGERS, SANDWICHES & MORE! FULL BAR • HAPPY HOUR 3-6 PM 541-549-8620 425 Hwy. 20 W. (Next to Bi-Mart) Mon-Fri 11 am-8 pm, Sat-Sun 8 am-8 pm, Bar Daily 11 a.m-Close New Client Introductory Special Sprin ia g ls! Signature Facial $59 Spec Established Clients: Essentials Skincare 10% off any two Éminence Organics products Complimentary Brow or Lip Waxing with full facial! Must mention this ad at time of booking. Offers good through March 31, 2017. PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON Jeff Cooney with baby flammulated owls. Karen Keady, 541-480-1412 | 492 E. Main Ave. | Mon-Sat Flexible Hours | www.SistersEssentials.com
