Port Renfrew Screeches; a San Juan Song
Last year, people who were camped out in the Ferry Creek protests encountered a number of Western Screech-Owls around Port Renfew. You can find some of these in iNaturalist or ebird. These observations were not entirely a surprise to us, as this area was one of our focuses as a region of good possibility early on in the project. We liked this area because the San Juan River supplies an example of a variably aged (mixed primary and secondary growth) riparian forest and both Edinburgh Mountain and San Juan Ridge have variably aged upland forests. We expected these upland cedar-dominated landscapes to have good numbers of screech-owls. Though we were unable to get to some of these areas last year, this year the roads are open and accessible for surveys.
Here’s a brief overview of the study sites: They are all around 2 hours from Downtown Nanaimo and 2 hours from Downtown Victoria. They’ve all had Western Screech-Owls detected on them in the past and they all have lots of Elk and other wildlife!
Edinburgh Mountain
This transect runs through a variety of ages of forest, including some very screechy old cedar forest. If you have an all wheel drive then this transect is for you! Because of a rocky hill at the beginning of the transect this one is not as accessible to 2WD vehicles. If you need a paved road for access, then look no further than the San Juan transect…
https://inaturalist.ca/observations/96339580
The San Juan River Transect
This transect is easily accessible by any vehicle and had both Barred and Screech-Owls last year. Though we don’t expect as many screeches as the other two transects, this one is a great transect for those interested at a chance of seeing screech without having to go down backroads. This is one of the better transects for spotting Elk. If you don’t see them driving through Cowichan Lake, then you have a shot at spotting them here.
If you have a 4WD vehicle and are looking for a great chance at seeing screech, then you may want to check out the San Juan Ridge detailed below…
Wolf prints down the shore of the San Juan River
The San Juan Ridge Transect
This transect has some of the more interesting patches of primary growth cedar in the area. Folks haven’t been as excited about exploring these spots, but it took very little time to find screeches here when scouting this spring. If you want a very good chance at finding screeches and you have a 4WD vehicle, then this transect is for you.
A creek running under a Western Redcedar in some wonderful screech habitat along the san juan ridge transect
As we continue to work on understanding the nocturnal communities of our coast better, we are finding it impossible to do it all on our own. With the help of volunteers like yourself, we hope to be able to get enough data this spring to really get an idea of what drives the distribution of western screech-owls in the pockets of the province where they are still at least somewhat common.
send me an email if you would like to volunteer for the Renfrew Transects!
pacificmegascops@gmail.com
