A2 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019 Half mystery, half magic: In search of great gray owls A photographer fi nds his passion By IAN McCLUSKEY Oregon Public Broadcasting It’s dawn. The rising sun is just starting to break through the boughs of pon- derosa pine, gleaming on the frosty grass of a small forest meadow in c entral Oregon. Woodpeckers drill, “Rrr- rrt-rrrrrt-rrrrrt.” Doves coo. But Ken Shults keeps his ears piqued for only one bird call: a low, “Whooooo-whooooo.” He tips back his felt fedora, cupping his hand to shade his eyes as he squints. He scans for any sign of motion against the dap- pled backdrop of boughs, Ken Shults pine needles, sunlight and shadow — a fl itter of a The rings of feathers around the owl’s eyes scoop in sound like radar dishes. feather, a slow twist of two think these birds are made name, stri x nebulosa, speaks or obscure. So in short: half intense yellow eyes. Today he returns to a of half magic and half mys- to this mysterious qual- magic, half mystery. place he has been coming tery,” Shults says. “They can ity. Stritx, the genus name, They’ve also been nick- week after week, month disappear into a forest like comes from ancient folk- named the “phantoms of the after month, year after year. they were made of smoke.” lore. These were magical north” because they live in Armed with tripod, cam- Great gray owls are so birds, sometimes associated the cold northern forests of era and zoom lens, he is on elusive that they’ve been with witches, and bearing Europe, Alaska and Canada. a search to fi nd one of the nicknamed “the ghosts of ill omen. The species name In the U.S., they may appear most elusive birds in Amer- the forest.” nebulosa comes from the in the northern Rockies, ica: the great gray owl. “I Even their scientifi c latin meaning misty, foggy Cascades and Sierras. FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA TONIGHT FRIDAY 44 35 Cloudy and chilly with a bit of rain Mostly cloudy with showers around; chilly Mostly cloudy; chilly with a few showers Chance of a little rain in the afternoon ALMANAC REGIONAL WEATHER Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs. ASTORIA 38/48 Tillamook 40/49 Salem 37/50 Newport 39/49 Sunset tonight ........................... 5:39 p.m. Sunrise Friday ............................. 7:19 a.m. Moonrise today ........................ 12:26 p.m. Moonset today ............................ 2:56 a.m. New Feb 26 Coos Bay 41/50 First Mar 6 Source: Jim Todd, OMSI TOMORROW'S TIDES Astoria / Port Docks Time 2:45 a.m. 4:21 p.m. Low 3.8 ft. 0.3 ft. City Atlanta Boston Chicago Denver Des Moines Detroit El Paso Fairbanks Honolulu Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Memphis Miami Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Philadelphia St. Louis Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle Washington, DC Hi 64 40 44 52 35 41 75 3 75 49 47 56 62 64 77 63 72 44 69 48 59 50 57 42 54 Ontario 36/47 Burns 25/35 Klamath Falls 25/35 Lakeview 24/33 Ashland 34/44 REGIONAL CITIES City Baker City Bend Brookings Eugene Ilwaco Klamath Falls Medford Newberg Newport North Bend Hi 41 40 49 46 43 42 48 43 46 48 Today Lo 31 27 38 37 40 25 34 38 39 39 W sh i r r r r r r r r Hi 40 41 46 49 48 35 46 48 49 51 Fri. Lo 20 23 38 37 39 23 34 37 38 38 W sn sn r sh r sn r sh r r City Olympia Pendleton Portland Roseburg Salem Seaside Spokane Springfi eld Vancouver Yakima Hi 39 35 42 48 44 43 33 47 42 33 Today Lo 35 29 37 38 37 40 28 38 39 23 W r sn r r r r sn r r sn Hi 45 42 49 47 50 49 34 49 48 35 Fri. Lo 32 26 37 38 37 38 25 37 37 21 W sh c sh r sh r sf sh sh c TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER NATIONAL CITIES Today Lo 48 33 11 24 2 28 59 -19 65 24 14 44 49 48 65 49 60 39 31 38 20 37 46 36 47 Baker 31/40 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Tonight's Sky: Mars low above the southwest hori- zon. Will remain evening object through August 2019. High 8.9 ft. 7.0 ft. La Grande 33/41 Roseburg 38/47 Brookings 37/46 Mar 14 John Day 33/40 Bend 27/41 Medford 34/46 UNDER THE SKY Time 8:46 a.m. 10:52 p.m. Prineville 27/44 Lebanon 38/49 Eugene 37/49 SUN AND MOON Last Pendleton 29/42 The Dalles 29/37 Portland 37/49 Precipitation Wednesday ....................................... 0.11" Month to date ................................... 4.78" Normal month to date ....................... 3.48" Year to date ...................................... 9.71" Normal year to date ........................ 13.68" Feb 19 MONDAY 46 31 Astoria through Wednesday. Temperatures High/low ....................................... 46°/36° Normal high/low ........................... 52°/37° Record high ............................ 64° in 2017 Record low ............................. 21° in 1949 Full SUNDAY 46 33 38 A little rain early; mostly cloudy SATURDAY 48 37 W pc s c pc c c pc s sh c c r r c pc c c pc pc pc c sh r r pc Hi 63 52 24 53 12 32 71 0 78 32 18 60 57 54 81 51 75 55 40 58 27 47 55 46 63 Fri. Lo 55 33 14 26 5 17 47 -7 64 21 9 41 45 32 63 35 64 35 22 33 16 29 46 35 38 Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. W c sh c pc sn c c s pc pc sn pc sh r pc sh c c c c sn r sh sh c Although they are not federally listed as endan- gered, fi nding one is a rare occurrence. Great gray owls move silently through a for- est and will quietly perch, rarely drawing attention to themselves. Cloaked in dap- pled feathers, they blend almost invisibly into trees. Unlike many birds, they usu- ally won’t fl ush when some- one walks by but will remain motionless. Wildlife biologists have learned that owls are highly territorial and that if they play the call of an owl in their territory, most owls will hoot back. Great gray owls, however, will often ignore such calls. After fi ve years of search- ing, Shults has probably seen fewer than a dozen, he estimates. He has discovered only one nest. “It’s a big bird, but a much bigger forest,” he says, then heads to another meadow. Finding great gray owls requires intense focus. “So part of the trick is to train your brain to not see the tree,” explains Shults. “You’re looking for every- thing that’s not tree.” A soaked Rainier assesses fl ood damage By CHLOE SKAAR The Daily News RAINIER — Rainier Mayor Jerry Cole said the city is “putting things back together” after declaring a state of emergency Tues- day in response to down- town fl ooding caused by Fox Creek. The creek, which enters the city from the hills above downtown, backed up where it enters a culvert at C Street. Water poured across C Street and fl owed downhill before rejoining the creek just west of the Grocery Outlet store, located between B and A streets. The parking lot of Ark Real Estate, on B Street, was fl ooded until late Tuesday afternoon, said real estate broker Sarah Borders, but the offi ce didn’t see water inside. “I got a phone call at 7 a.m. (Tuesday) that there was water to our fi rst step, so I got here as fast as I could,” Borders said. “I called a chain of other (businesses) ... we had sandbags down here at 10 a.m. but until then it was really just maintain- ing the debris in the runoff areas.” Borders said most of the water in their parking lot had receded by 2 p.m., and the real estate offi ce was open for businesses as usual Wednesday. But other stores along Columbia River High- way didn’t have the same luck. Earth-N-Sun and Gro- cery Outlet were both closed Wednesday due to fl ood damage. Borders said she also observed Don Pedros restaurant and Rainier RV Center Inc. standing in water throughout Tuesday. Rainier’s only large food store, Grocery Outlet, was in a direct path downhill from the creek overfl ow. The store itself did not sustain any damage, but a portion of the parking lot near the entry doors was washed out where the prop- erty abuts the open section of Fox Creek, said Kyle Noble, a spokesman for the company. The company is keeping the store closed indefi nitely as a safety precaution until it can assess the damage, Noble said late Wednesday. “Heavy rains have wreaked havoc on the sur- rounding landscape causing a fl ood adjacent to our store and damage to our parking lot,” Noble said in a prepared statement. “We are currently working to get the appro- priate personnel in place to evaluate and make the nec- essary repairs and ensure the store is safe to reopen to the public.” He did not have an esti- mate for when the store would reopen. DEATHS Feb. 13, 2019 BARROW, May Dagne, 87, of Warrenton, died in Seaside. Ocean View Funeral & Cre- mation Service of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. KINNUNEN, Gertrude Elizabeth (Palo), 92, of Astoria, died in Astoria. Caldwell’s Luce-Layton Mortuary of Astoria is in charge of the arrangements. PUBLIC MEETINGS THURSDAY Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c Way. Warrenton Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave. LOTTERIES Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice. CLATSOP POWER EQUIPMENT , INC. SALES SERVICE RENTALS • Ian McCluskey/Oregon Public Broadcasting Photographer Ken Shults searches for great gray owls in the forests of central Oregon. OREGON Wednesday’s Pick 4: 1 p.m.: 2-4-9-3 4 p.m.: 4-5-4-6 7 p.m.: 0-8-1-3 10 p.m.: 7-8-4-2 Wednesday’s Lucky Lines: 4-7-11-13-20-24-27-31 Estimated jackpot: $47,000 Wednesday’s Megabucks: 3-8-10-24-28-36 Estimated jackpot: $8.2 million Wednesday’s Powerball: 2-8- 14-24-69, Powerball: 26 Estimated jackpot: $260 million WASHINGTON Wednesday’s Daily Game: 5-5-1 Wednesday’s Hit 5: 08-10-36- OBITUARY POLICY The Daily Astorian publishes paid obituaries. The obituary can include a small photo and, for veterans, a fl ag symbol at no charge. The deadline for all obituaries is 9 a.m. the business day prior. Obituaries may be edited for spelling, proper punctuation and style. 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