Hi Tweets

If the Barred Owl were a fish, it would be the equivalent of the invasive
snakefish which is currently hoovering up many of the indigenous species in
the Mississippi watershed. And what it did in BC it's already doing in
Washington State. Get set, Oregon.

It's not just Spotted Owls. Vancouver BC has lost its Western Screech-Owls
to this invasive species since the clear-cut-logging-assisted introduction
of this species to British Columbia in the 1970's. Vast amounts of
clear-cutting in the province created lanes of access in the coniferous
boreal forest which had previously been the main barrier to westward
expansion of this eastern species. So when the Barred Owls arrive and clean
out your screech owls, You can thank the incumbent British Columbia
big-business party of the day for that outcome, currently the BC Liberals,
for giving logging companies carte blanche to devour our forests.

And not just the Western Screech-Owls. Barred Owls prey preferentially on
the indigenous Douglas Squirrel, as it has no instinctive defence against a
diurnal forest owl as eastern deciduous-forest squirrels do. It may develop
one over time but, currently, it's getting hammered.

So, Spotted Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Douglas Squirrel. Not a bad haul for
this corporate-aided eastern expandee.

But, horribly, I remember being excited when the first showed in Vancouver
in the early 1970's. Couldn't wait to get it on the checklist.

If I'd only known.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
loblollyboy at gmail.com

Every answer deepens the mystery.
- E.O. Wilson
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