This photo is copyright Dick Cronberg. 

This photo is by Elizabeth von Radics, showing nest box built by her father, Carl Ebbesen, in hope the Barred Owl will nest there above their chicken house in Medford.

Elizabeth von Radics daily welcomes the local birding population, to her front yard, to meet her newest neighbor.  It’s “Eleanor” the Barred Owl.  Until fairly recently one of the century-old craftsmen-style homes across the street had two equally old oaks in the front yard.  The aged, decaying oaks were cut down before Christmas.  About that time Eleanor appeared in the large deciduous tree in front of the von Radics’ home.  It may be she simply moved across the street when her old oaken shelter was taken away.

As recently as 1975 a U.S. Fish & Wildlife publication on Jackson County birds did not list Barred Owl, not even as a vagrant.  Only the year before was the first Barred Owl found anywhere in Oregon, and that was much farther north. This large-sized, adaptable owl has been rapidly expanding its northwestern U.S. range in urbanized and logged areas.  It’s now widespread west of the Cascades and has moved far down the western side of California.  Closely related to the endangered Spotted Owl, Eleanor and her kind are doing just fine.  Barred and Spotted Owls are known to interbreed.

Its food is smaller birds, mammals and, in warm weather, reptiles and even large invertebrates.  The Barred Owl is territorial all year round, which is why Eleanor would not have moved far even if somebody cut down her home oak.  It’s her turf there in Medford and she’s sticking to it.

Elizabeth sees her owl take off every evening around 5 p.m.  This is in keeping with the ways of the Barred.  They are most active after sundown and just before sunrise.  We were there mid-afternoon and Eleanor was awake, giving us an owlish glance or two but mostly resting for the nightly hunt ahead.  Elizabeth reports the local Scrub-jays do occasionally come and raise a ruckus, which Eleanor ignores placidly.  Any revenge she might extract on local corvids would come only after dark; then the power balance is reversed. On rare occasions Barred’ll even hunt during the daytime.  A breeding pair will have overlapping ranges but never fully share territory even while raising young.  The nest will thus always be somewhere inside the female’s year-round territory.

Elizabeth read my little note here and emailed this: “You may want to mention that I collect the pellets daily for the John Muir School in Ashland, which will be
dissecting and cataloging the contents by date–the first data about a Rogue Valley
Barred Owl!”

Barred Owls breed only once per year, usually in late winter this far north.  Their main predators are Great Horned Owls and large hawks.  Thge oldest known Barred Owl in the wild lived over eighteen years. May Eleanor live long and her kind propser there on her busy residential street in central Medford.  I am told Eleanor doesn;t even flinch when the firetrucks siren down the street.

Eleanor was Oregon lifer #183 for me and was #530 for the lower 48 states.  Thanks to Elizabeth von Radics.

DIPPER

We have a very heavy rain over the weekend.  The next morning I found no Dipper in Ashland Creek.  Where’s the Dipper go when Ashland Creek is running high and turbid?  Current was intense and the clarity of the creek is nil.  Two days later the creek had subsided to a more normal wointer level.  The Dipper was back on his usual stretch of water downstream from the 1912 Memorial Bridge.  And singing on a day when little birdsong could be expected.  It had snowed overnight and the sounds outdoors were mostly muffled apart from running water and the Dipper’s own liquid notes.

WATERFOWL

Friday I noticed several Ducks ina  horse pasture  we’ve passed many times.  It’s just north of Ashaldn along I-5.  Following heavy rain overnight,  there was standing water now over much of the field. Several Shoveler and a male Bufflehead.  Dabblers I understand but what could a diving duck possibly find to eat in such an ephemeral body of water?

Then Sunday morning I checked out the Bear Creek Greenway in Talent.  A small pond there had Wigeon and other water birds.  The creek had a male and three female Hooded Mergansers.  Beneath a road bridge a Black Phoebe was hunting.  At least he was not out in brambles where overnight snow still covered the leaves.

The area ia obviously an overnight roosting spot for Mourning Doves.  They clung to the lower branches, waiting for the day to warm and the light snow blanket to melt.

Location:     Newbry Park & Greenway, Talent
Observation date:     1/6/08
Notes:     Hooded Mergansers in Bear Creek, other ducks on small ponds, birded area was just south of Fern Valley Road Bridge.  Area appears to be Mourning Dove roost.
Number of species:     21

Cackling Goose     1
Wood Duck     6
American Wigeon     15
Northern Shoveler     8
Ring-necked Duck     9
Bufflehead     1
Hooded Merganser     4
Pied-billed Grebe     1
American Coot     25
Rock Pigeon     30
Mourning Dove     17
Downy Woodpecker     2
Black Phoebe     1
Western Scrub-Jay     1
Common Raven     1
Black-capped Chickadee     1
American Robin     1
European Starling     5
Red-winged Blackbird     32
Lesser Goldfinch     90
House Sparrow     3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/Klamath-Siskiyou)