[Tweeters] Barred Owls & Western Screech-owls

[Jamie Acker via Tweeters]

 Good morning Tweeters!

 I have been studying and monitoring the Barred owl population on Bainbridge Island for nearly 30 years now.  I started my studies in 1994, just after the arrival of the first Barred owl to the Island.  Their population has increased since then to an estimated 40+ pairs, much to the demise of the Western Screech-owl. Screech-owls have been gone from the Island for over 14 years.  I authored a paper in Northwest Naturalist in 2012 that noted the correlation between the increase in Barred owls and the loss of the Western Screech-owl.  I believe that the issue is all about timing.  Barred Owls are on eggs the first week in March.  Western Screech-owls don't go on eggs until the first week in April.  This one month difference means that young Barred owls are out of the nest and moving around just when the young screech-owls fledge.  If you have ever witnessed young owls, they tend to hang out in conspicuous perches and scream for food.  To an adult barred owl looking to feed young, this is a meal ticket.  I believe that the inability to pull off the next generation is what primarily has led to the species disappearance from its former haunts.  One of my largest regrets in my owl studies was not to document the locations of screech-owls on the island when I started my observations.  They were the most common resident owl on the island and I took their presence for granted.  Until they weren't.

-Jamie Acker
owler637 at gmail.com
Bainbridge Island, WA
  

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