Chris' Screech Owls

Among the many things I attempt to grow in my garden each year are eastern screech owls, Megascops asio hasbroucki. In two breeding seasons (1998 and 1999), I grew a total of nine such owls. That was the good news.

The bad news is that eight of them were killed before fledging. Worse, both breeding females were also killed. Worse still, they all appear to have been killed not by disease, the elements, or one of their natural predators, but by an introduced species of predator, the house cat.

If there are people who still wonder how species are driven to extinction, one answer is that a pattern like that is repeated year after year until the population of a species is too small, or too widely scattered, to reproduce in excess of its losses. And some short number of years after that it quietly vanishes forever.

 

2006		2005		2004

 

2003		2002		2001

 

2000		1999		1998

The Lives of North American Birds, Kenn Kaufman, 1996, states that the eastern screech owl is "[s]till widespread and fairly common but [is] thought to have been gradually declining in various parts [of its] range." It goes on to note that nest boxes have helped in some areas.

It is worth remembering that, for example, passenger pigeons were also once "fairly common."

So, I continue attempting to provide suitable nest boxes for my local screech owls, hoping that I'll yet be able to facilitate the kind of consistent breeding success that will ensure their ongoing presence in my area.

—[ This Year's Owl Page ]—

"A rare bird or flower need remain no rarer than the people willing to venture their skill in building it a habitat."
Aldo Leopold, The Conservation Ethic, 1933.