Spring showers bring… screech-owls? (Part 1)
Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park
Red-backed Salamander in Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park
Rain brings many wonderful things. Unfortunately it also washes out access roads. As water-retentive primary growth forests are cleared, the second growth that remains sheds water much faster. We all watched this happen this fall, as the rain washed out rivers, creeks and roads alike. Unfortunately for our research, this meant that some of our sites were inaccessible this year. I was especially worried about Carmanah Walbran, Coquitlam Lake Watershed and the Tsitika River. Thankfully, we’ve been able to access all these locations, and in the process, we’ve found some very cool wildlife.
One of the few intact high productivity primary growth watersheds in BC, Carmanah is arguably our most important research site. Though the roads were muddy and slick, Jay and I got there just before noon on a week day in early march after 3-4 hours of driving. As we jumped out of the truck and started packing our bags with ARUs the woods around us felt ready explode with life. Varied Thrushes veeeeee’d tentatively from the alders, Sooty Grouse wooot’d from somewhere above and salmonberry buds swelled dangerously large along the ditches.
Looking up at the first large cedar snags I’d seen in a month, and filled with a sense of spring confidence, I proclaimed to Jay how sure I was that Screech-Owls would be breeding in those half dead thousand year old trees.
“Is that a Jeremiah Guarantee?”
“You bet!”
In truth it was a Jeremiah dream, but a year without screech surveys makes a person say silly things.
Early spring along an old growth river is something to behold
We clambered up cedar slopes swimming with salamanders, and strolled along flooded spruce banks, brimming with water from the rains. Once the ARUs were tied to trees to listen to the spring sounds of the woods, we made our way back to the truck, sore and ready for a lazy roadside survey.
As we changed out of wet clothing, soaked by seven hours of stumbling through moss and branches, we listened to the trickling and muttering of water all around. It was misty, but it wasn’t supposed to rain at least.
Suddenly the stumbling trill of a Western Screech-Owl rose only slightly above the roar of Carmanah Creek. He was immediately on the other side of the gravel from us, ten feet up in a Red Alder. We hadn’t started our survey or played any owl songs all day. The season had most certainly started!
After a night of playback surveys, driving roads near the park, we came back to our welcome party. He was singing away, moving from one side of the parking lot to the other and proclaiming his territory to the night. As it drizzled and our dry gear got wet again, he continued to sing through the rain. We named him Randy. The gate keeper to the valley and a voracious singer. If you listen he’ll tell you, though slightly repetitive, a wonderful story in the rain.
