I'm worried about the sightings of spotted owls in second growth timber
in this respect: does their presence mean that they are breeding and
increasing their numbers, i.e., thriving, or could their presence mean
that they have been displaced from logged over old growth and are just
hanging out/on in second growth? I recall that great auks, carolina
paroquets and other species about to become extinct often have been
reported in either marginal habitats or in places they had not been for
decades just before extinction. Could anybody clarify this?

Charles Easterberg
Univ of Washington
easterbg.u.washington.edu