Hi Tweets,

Thought I pass this interesting information on. Hope there is no direct
correlation with the population at Havillah and Wauconda.

Even though they are not breeding this year, I suspect there will still be a
few birds around in the Spring Creek area. They have been reliably breeding
in this area for the last 13 years with as many as 9 active pairs last year.

Khanh Tran

(Portland, Oregon)


>Subject: Disappointing report
> From: mapenninger at fs.fed.us
>Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:08:08 -0700
>
>
>Arlene Blumton and I checked all 21 great grey owl platforms in the Spring
>Creek area yesterday. Not a single one was occupied by any species. This
>is very surprising considering we had a total of nine active pairs (plus
>one great horned) last year. In the thirteen years I have monitored these
>birds I have not seen a year with no active platforms. At this point in
>the year these owls should be either recently hatched or very near
>hatching. So I do not suspect we're just seeing late nesting. I regret
>this poor report because I know how much many of you look forward to
>observing and photographing these birds. If any of you end up going to
>Spring Creek anyway, please report any adult ggo's that you see. Also, if
>you find carcasses of birds I would be interested in knowing the exact
>location of those.
>
>As a side note, other biologists here in the Grande Ronde Valley report
>very low nesting effort by other raptors also. If I hear of any logical
>explanations to all of this I will follow up with you. At this time
>reasons for the lack of nesting raptors would be pure speculation.
>
>Mark