One of the things I enjoy about growing older is that I still have the get-up-and-go to join old friends who not only share what I love to do, but never miss the opportunity to do so. Like when Dick Tipton sent me an email about a saw-whet owl using one of his kestrel nesting […]
Natural World
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Building a Nesting Box with Jim Anderson ▶ (with video)
Make one for pygmy owls. Make one for another bird. But in any case, spend some time with our resident naturalist Jim Anderson.
Around these parts, he’s known to spin a yarn that wraps around the block. Now, Naturalist Jim Anderson and longtime Source Weekly contributor sits down with us to talk about one of his favorite subjects: Birds—and how to help care for them. Source videographer Darris Hurst met with Anderson at his home—social-distancing-approved style—to walk through […]
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An Eagle Obituary
At Blue Mountain Wildlife, saving raptors is the name of the game
I have a friend, Lynn Tompkins, who, with her husband, Bob, operate a wildlife facility that does wildlife rehab work near Pendleton. At the moment she and her irreplaceable Volunteers (Capitalized because they are so faithful and hard-working), headed by Michele Canon, are currently handling over 30 orphaned barn owls that have come to her attention […]
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Bats and COVID-19
The hypothesis that novel coronavirus stemmed from bats is not reason to mess with local species
The COVID-19 virus has come home to roost with concern for our native bats. As an Oregon wildlife researcher with duties that include banding birds and bats, I’m required to purchase an expensive permit from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to do my work. As such, I received a letter from the ODFW […]
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Insect Apocalypse
The persistent problem in persistent pesticides
“Apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning revelation—an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known, and which could not be known, apart from the unveiling. “As a genre, apocalyptic literature details the authors’ visions of the end times as revealed by an angel or other heavenly messenger,” Wikipedia posits. Sorry, good people—I am neither an […]
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The Barred Owl is Here—to Stay!
The nemesis of the threatened spotted owl
First it was rumors: “The barred owls are coming, the barred owls are coming…” Next, it was the dire warnings that the barred owls were going to either chase all the Northern Spotted Owls out of the Northwest, or breed with them and bring forth a whole new sub-species called, “Sparred Owls.” Then the warning […]
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Putting Porcupines on a Pedestal
A surprise pup, found at the High Desert Museum
In our part of the country, where trees were once thought of as a cash crop, porcupines were not thought of as heroes, or worthy of a pedestal. I can recall back in the ’50s, when signs nailed to trees and poles all over the forest around Bend read, “Please Kill Porcupines!” Porcupine poison stations […]
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Homes for Birds and Bats
Don’t let Central Oregon’s housing shortage affect wildlife, too
OK, good people, now’s the time! Head out to the nearest housing construction project, and if they’re using plywood (not particle board), ask the builders to put leftovers aside. Bring a box of donuts, give it to the builders and bring the plywood home to build bird house nesting boxes. I’ve been building nesting boxes […]
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Healing and Loving the Land
On efforts to preserve parts of Central Oregon for wildlife… and future generations
Several years ago, while conducting some fence lizard business at the Deschutes Land Trust’s Metolius Preserve, I ran into Amanda Egertson, the land trust’s stewardship director. She was conducting a restoration project on the preserve with a vigor I found remarkable—planting grass over and over and over, day after day. The Metolius Preserve was once […]
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Rock Chuck Day
Oregon doesn’t have groundhogs—but these creatures could spur a new “holiday” around these parts
A few years back—on Feb. 22, 2014, to be exact—my wife, Sue, and I were driving a Jefferson County road headed for Eagle Watch. And as it is when we’re driving anywhere this time of year, we were also watching for Golden Eagles to see who’s hanging around, hopefully getting ready to start nesting. As we […]
