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Art by Barry Kent MacKay

(Artwork - 251)
Barred Owl (Strix varia)

In watching the American TV series, Boardwalk Empire, one hears, in almost every rural night scene, the call of an owl that sounds, to me, something like “hoo….hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo-herrrrr” with the last syllable slurred and a little guttural. The call can be heard in many American night scenes of movies and TV shows and very appropriately, since it is characteristic of rural night in much of North America, especially in the south-east. They occur north into Canada and are often one of the more easily seen owls here in Ontario. My first painting is in oils and is very recent, while the second one is in acrylics and was done many years ago.

Barred Owl (Strix varia)

They are medium-sized owls, the northern subspecies that I have painted range from about 620 grams to over 800 grams while females are distinctly larger, up to over 900 grams. They eat mostly small mammals but will take any prey they can overcome. While they normally pounce on animals from above (having excellent night vision and hearing and a very silent flight) they have been seen catching birds and bats in flight. They will take large invertebrates, and have been seen dining on carrion, albeit rarely.

There is a huge controversy raging in conservation circles. The Barred Owl’s range is moving west, and now overlaps that of a species native to mostly old growth forests of North America, south into Mexico, the Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis), which is endangered (virtually gone from B.C.) I have included an oil painting I did of that species many years ago (third attachment).

Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis)

Historically the prairies were an effective barrier to Barred Owls, who require trees, but humans changed the environment giving them numerous habitat pathways westward. They are bigger and more successful as hunters than the Spotteds, so out-compete them. Sometimes female Barreds will mate with male Spotteds, and perhaps the odd large Barred Owl will even prey on the Spotted but the main problem is that the Barreds out-compete the Spotted whose native forests have often been over-“harvested” by the timber industry.

It’s a human-caused problem but the Barred are scapegoated, with the U.S. killing large numbers of them. The problem will be exacerbated now that the U.S. is freeing up previously protected forest for cutting. The current plan is to kill more than 2400 Barred Owls.

I don’t normally discuss controversies in these mailings…they’re for fun in the celebration of art and nature…but I do have to say I think the idea is cannot work. Barred Owls have much broader habitat preferences than the Spotted and for the old growth forests needed by Spotted Owls to recover would take centuries if it could even happen. Killing Barred Owls would have to continue in perpetuity. Biologists are proficient at telling the two species apart, but a grant has been awarded the Hoopa Valley Native Americans in California to kill up to 1,500 Barred Owls, and sport hunters may also be recruited. The two species are too similar to assume Spotteds won’t accidentally be killed as well. I’ve seen the Spotted Owl in the wild, a most beautiful species that I want to survive, but this plan can’t make that happen.

The Spotted Owl painting was done in oils and all three are approximately life-size.

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