> A century ago, barred owls didn't live much farther west than Montana
> and Alberta. But since the 1940s they've spread into southwestern
> British Columbia, western Washington and Oregon. The barred owl was
> first spotted in California's Del Norte County in 1981.
>
> They're most numerous in British Columbia, at the northern edge of the
> spotted owl range, where Douglas fir gives way to silver fir.
>
> "These days," said Forsman, "if you go up to British Columbia, you find
> 10 barred owls for every one spotted owl." The owls are less common to
> the south, and most rare in California. As of last September, there had
> been 291 sightings of barred owls at 59 different sites in California,
> said Gould. An estimated 2,000 northern spotted owls live in California.
>
> It could be, said Forsman, that the barred owl filled a particular niche
> in British Columbia and won't easily oust spotted owls farther south.

First Barred owl specimen was taken at Liard River in n.e. BC in August
1943 by Rand (in Birds of BC (1990) by Campbell et al.). Since then it
has spread southwest to include just about all of the province. I recently
asked Danny Tyson who has been conducting SPOW surveys in s.w. BC the
past few years whether he or any of his fellow workers have run into
evidence of Barred Owl predation on Spotteds. He said that they could not
be sure whether the culprit was Great Horned or Barred but that there has
been at least one Spotted taken by a larger owl. Danny stressed that studying
Spotteds in B.C. is very difficult given the rugged terrain and the retiring
nature of the species.

- Jack



Jack Bowling
RR1-S14-C41
Prince George, BC
Canada
V2N 2H8

phone: (250) 963-7837
fax: (250) 963-7801
jbowling at direct.ca