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Wednesday, November 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Look out for eagles
There’s a lot of old fogies
like me still driving, and our
reflexes are not as fast as
the young whipper-snappers
sharing the highways with us
these days. Even with very
strict and wonderful laws in
place regarding cell phones
and driving, I still see people
blow by me on Highway 20
blabbing away on their hand-
held phones.
Those kind of drivers are
made-to-order deer and rap-
tor killers. Mule deer migrat-
ing to their winter deer range,
and hungry raptors passing
through are all too vulnerable
to motor vehicles.
Most of the prey raptors
are so reliant upon have gone
down to hibernate through
the winter. There are jackrab-
bits and cottontails still above
ground, and a raptor needing
a meal will take them, even
if they have to swoop right in
front of a motor vehicle.
I received a phone call
from Peggy Tehan last Friday,
reporting a barred owl lying
face down in her yard. When
I went to her place of busi-
ness to retrieve it, it was still
warm, having just died on the
trip from Peggy’s home to
her office.
The owl was in good
shape, as far as I could see,
but weighed only a few
ounces. To get a better pic-
ture of what may have caused
the owl’s death, I took it to
Sisters raptor rehabber Gary
Landers for a look see.
The first thing Gary did
was check it over carefully
looking for obvious signs of
trauma, but, its wings were
still operable, there was no
sign of blood in the mouth or
eyes, or any obvious outside
signs of trauma. However, he
found it to be almost imaci-
ated, with very little mus-
cle in its body (something
I had missed). And when
he checked the floppy tail
assembly he found the last
segment of the spine to be
broken and the tail, though in
good shape, completely inop-
erable. Somehow, the owl
had received a sharp blow
on the tailbone which dis-
connected the tail assembly
from support or any muscle
control.
“There’s a good chance it
was struck by a motor vehicle
a while back and was hang-
ing around the Tehan place
to recover,” was Lander’s
analysis.
So, there it sat, perched in
the Tehan’s big pines, gazing
down at the voles and mice
passing under it, but inca-
pable of capturing them, and
all the time slowly starving to
death; a probable victim of
another hit and run.
While talking to Gary
about birds and motor-vehicle
collisions — during which
I mentioned finding a dead
golden eagle lying along-
side the road out between
Hampton and Brothers —
Gary said, “I hate to tell you
this, Jim, but I fear the male
Golden Eagle from Smith
Rock is dead.”
That was a shocker! The
Smith Rock goldens have
been there a long time and
have lived through all kinds
of trauma from park visi-
tors and sight-seers pester-
ing them during the breed-
ing season. They even had
to put up with a low-flying
airplane and hot-air balloon
that caused their nest to fail.
Now, if Gary’s appraisal of
the discovery of a road-killed
eagle near Terrebonne is cor-
rect, one of the pair will have
to find a new partner.
This is the time of year
that the summer’s abundant
ground squirrel population
is no longer available as prey
for raptors. There’s a hay
ranch west of Terrebonne
where Sue and I have counted
as many as 50 red-tailed
hawks feeding on the ground
squirrels. When those ground
squirrels go down, the hawks
are frantic for food and start
taking unnecessary risks
to keep from starving; like
chasing a cottontail across
the road.
Working the highway
for road-kills pays off for a
hawk, owl or eagle, but when
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PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
BLM wildlife biologists checking a golden eagle dead along Highway 20
between Hampton and Brothers, a victim of a motor vehicle strike.
one comes down to grab a
fresh kill near speeding vehi-
cles they are in great jeop-
ardy. Even if the bird sees the
oncoming vehicle in time and
attempts to fly off, at times
they’ll be struck if the vehi-
cle is going 70 mph and the
driver isn’t paying attention.
It would also be of great
help if ODOT would haul
dead deer to the agency’s
wildlife graveyards ASAP
and get them away from busy
highways.
I’ve dodged owls at night,
and missed hawks, bur-
rowing owls and American
kestrels and eagles during the
day quite often. I’m pushing
90, and I can still miss ’em.
You can, too.
As you watch that eagle,
hawk, falcon or owl fly away
from a near collision, pat
yourself on the back and tell
me about it so I can thank
you. You can begin by slow-
ing down as you approach
the old Lazy Z adjacent to
Highway 20. There’s an adult
American kestrel wintering
there; you can see it perched
on the power line looking for
voles. So, please slow down.
Thank you!
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