Wednesday, April 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Tales from a Sisters Naturalist by Jim Anderson Owls, owls and more owls There’ve been some inter- esting phone calls arriving on both my home and trav- elin’ phones that are giving me cause to suspect the alien barred owl population (from the eastern USA and Canada) may be on the rise, and peo- ple are confusing them with our native great gray owls. Great grays are owls of the open spaces of the high country with evergreen for- ests. They like to hang out on the edges of meadows, hiding in the thick foliage of ever- greens, waiting for gophers and other meadow dwell- ers to (literally) show their heads. They’re very uncom- mon in juniper and sagebrush country, sticking pretty much to high country pine forests and open meadows. The barred owl, on the other hand, is a generalist; it can get along with just about any small prey, and as far as I know doesn’t give a hoot about what kind of habitat it’s in. They are also a great deal smaller then the great gray, and they seem to be popping up more frequently near Bend and Sisters. The species do look some- what alike at a quick glance. Both have no horns/ears, both have a very noticeable facial disk, and both have similar coloration. However, their very distinct differ- ences are size and eye color. The great gray is gigantic by comparison (bigger than a great horned) and has yel- low eyes, while the barred is much smaller (about the size of a small chicken) and has all-black eyes. Great grays were having a tough time of it not too long back — and still are in some areas — because of habitat loss. Unfortunately, there’s a direct conflict between the owls’ need for a jackstraw understory and the fire-dan- ger requirements to eliminate that jackstraw understory, known as “ladder fuels.” This conflict has been elimi- nated in some areas with the installation of nesting plat- forms large enough allow the owlets to remain in the nest to fledge. Unfortunately, like most owls, the great gray select nests that are handy, that don’t have to even resemble a “nest,” and because they like to choose a nesting site located on the edge of forests, close to their favorite food supply — voles, mice and gophers — that’s “home.” The so-called “nest” is often a broken-off tree about 20 to 40 feet high. The (sort- of) flat surface with broken parts of the stub seems to meet with approval for great grays. The female lays her eggs in among the stub’s debris, fluffs up her skirt and somehow keeps them warm, and they hatch. Within two weeks, there’s no room at the inn. Baby owls — especially great grays — grow very rapidly. Mom and dad are great pro- viders, so within two weeks or so their babies are about twice as big as when they hatched, and begin shoving each other around. If the “nest” is in a bro- ken-off lodgepole pine or old accipiter nest, and if there’s two or more babies, they soon begin pushing against each other so harshly that one or more is pushed out of the nest. Most nests are some- what out of the way of visi- tors, so no one comes along to see the “poor little baby owl” on the ground and take it to a rehabber. That’s OK. Old Dame Nature took care of the business of great grays fall- ing out of nests a long time ago. Baby great gray owls have enormous feet, and with those long toes, sharp talons and strong legs, they can climb small trees like nobody’s business. That’s when the jackstraw understory comes into play. The baby owl climbs to the top of the stick — sometimes doing it vertically — and starts squawking for food. The parents take care of the stranded owl as if it were still in the nest, and often, the youngster will remain on the top of that pole, being taken care of by the adult — even after it fledges. On the other hand, barred owls will use an old raptor, magpie nest, or pike of sticks that holds all the babes in the nest to fledging time, and as generalists, can make a living on just about anything small that moves within a half-mile of the nest, be it birds, frogs, snakes, lizards, mice, gophers or even stinky baby skunks. But all this may come to naught if a “tiger of the air” — the great horned owl — moves into or already occu- pies the area. No owl is safe when one of those tigers moves in. Even smaller, cavity-nesting species, such as northern elf, ferruginous, saw-whet, screech and flam- mulated owls will leave a nesting territory if a great horned shows up. Years ago I helped to con- duct a northern spotted owl survey for the Forest Service. One of the protocols was if a great horned answered the spotted owl survey call you were to fold up shop and leave the area immediately. South of Gilchrist, on the east side of Highway 97, I had a calling site like that; all it took was one spotted owl call, and a great horned responded with gusto and I hit the trail. When it comes to strange calls or sight- ings that you’re not sure of, please do your best to obtain a “voucher photo.” That’s really the only way everyone can be abso- lutely sure what you’re observing is, or is not, what you think it is. If you show it to local bird experts, Tom Crabtree of Bend or Chuck Gates of Powell Butte — what they say it is gospel. O r e g o n Great gray owl. Department of Fish & Wildlife non- game biologist Simon Wray (simon.n.wray@state. or.us), of Bend’s Central Region office is on top of every call he gets regard- ing non-game wildlife. The U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife appreciates the same when someone reports a spot- ted or barred owl. It would be of far greater importance if the biologists were to receive a voucher photo when some- one tells him of a sighting that he or she is not quite sure of. 17 PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON Even if you don’t have a photo, please don’t hesitate to share any special wildlife observation you may encoun- ter. You’re there to experi- ence it, I’m not, and if what you’re reporting sounds like a mystery, I may be ready to go to the scene with you and we do some looking together, and share what we find. You just never know… Give me a shout at jim naturalist@gmail.com; trave- lin’ phone: 541-480-3728, or home phone: 541-388-1659. A division of Lakeview Millworks Visit our Sisters showroom A&I Manufacturing SAVE MORE: HunterDouglas Rebate Sale going on now! Save on select items. 141 E. Cascade Ave., #202 BestVueBlinds.com 541-588-6201