Hello Tweeters,
Some of you may remember the Northern Hawk Owl that was hanging around
this winter in Douglas County, near Mansfield (Rd 15 and Rd B farmhouse).
I was one member of the two-person party that found the bird dead on the
side of the road. I'm Anya Illes, the person who notified you all of
this sad occurrence was Jesse Ellis. We brought the bird in to the Burke
Museum at the University of Washington.

I write to relate a few little details about the bird. I think some of
you were fans of this individual. Today it was skinned and prepared.

This individual was an adult male that weighed 340 grams, had a wingspan
of 77 cm, and a wing chord of 22.5 cm. It had a moderate amount of fat
on its body, and and the back half of a deer mouse in its belly
(Peromyscus maniculatus). For those of you that don't know, the deer
mouse is a native to the region.

In summary, this bird was healthy, in good shape and was hunting the
local native fauna. Considering these and all your observations from the
field, it was probably doing just fine at that farmhouse. And a random
behavioral observation...looks like it probably liked to take the head
off its dinner before swallowing.

As far as the cause of death: definitely a powerful impact. The
collarbone, breastbone and one humerus were all broken. Luckily this
bird died quickly.
Your hawk owl was prepped by long-time Burke employee extraordinaire
Chris Wood. He's prepped thousands of birds and is one of the best for
the job at the Burke. One wing was removed and pinned open for the
Burke's very valuable spread wing collection (spreading the wing enables
much easier study of molt patterns, feather growth and feather wear).
The rest of the bird was kept whole and preserved together as a regular
"round." The specimen ID of the bird is CSW-7375. Someday in the future
when the specimen is entered into the database, you'll be able to look
it up online.

This birds is MUCH appreciated by the Burke ornithology staff. Many,
many folks who walked into the prep room today stopped dead in their
tracks when they saw the bird. Just as blown away by it as many of you!
The tissue collections manager was particularly excited - this is the
first Washington State Northern Hawk Owl tissue in the collection. This
is only the third Washington hawk owl in the collection at all, and is a
long time in coming. The other two are from the 1920's! (tissues were
not taken and frozen back then)

Unfortunately, this bird died an early death. I'm still sad and I would
much prefer that this bird were on its way back north! But fortunately,
it will be valued greatly by scientists and naturalists who use the
museum research collection, and will be a benefit to anyone who wants to
know a little bit more about birds.

Best regards,
Anya Illes///
/

--
_________________________________________________________________________________

Anya E. Illes
Doctoral Candidate
University of Washington
Biology Department
24 Kincaid Hall, Box 351800
Seattle, WA 98195
USA

ailles at u.washington.edu
www.ailles.com