Big owls get a big home

Last week was a big time for 14-year-old Jessie Thornton of Sisters, a very curious young man with a passion for owls. He's one of the few - very few - people that I know who can look at a photo of one of the 15 owls that move around Oregon and accurately name the owl.

About a year ago, Jessie and his family came to this old geezer asking about a project Jessie could take on that would benefit the owls that live within the forests around Sisters. In the course of our conversation the subject of great gray owls (GGO) came up, and the need to provide safe nesting substrate for them.

Jessie lit up like a Christmas tree at the mention of North America's biggest owl.

"You mean they nest around here?" he asked eagerly.

I shared an experience I had with Sisters High School grad, Andrew Stahn, while helping him with his Eagle Scout Project out in the B&B Fire burn. As we were exploring habitat that looked as though it would support the Western screech owl, for which Andy had constructed 10 nesting boxes, we had a huge adult great gray owl suddenly zoom right across the road in front of us.

That little tale really got Jessie's attention. When he looked at his parents, Sue and Travis, and they smiled at each other I knew something good was about to happen.

Right here I have to digress for a moment: I do not know of any owl that actually "makes/builds" a nest. That is, carries sticks and other nesting material to a tree and constructs something that will hold eggs. They use other birds' nests, woodpecker tree cavities, man-made nesting boxes and structures, or as in the case of GGO, the top of a broken-off tree.

Such a substrate can not hold two to three young GGOs growing up; one or more will usually fall (or be pushed) out of the nest and end up on the ground. Therefore, one of the elements that GGOs must have in order for the nestlings to survive is a "jack-straw understory;" that is, a mishmash of small trees under the nesting tree, leaning against each other.

Mother Nature has given baby GGOs very strong feet which allows them to inch up those jack-straw trees to safety where the parent owls care for them. But those trees put great gray owls in trouble with those charged with dealing with forest fire; they call them "ladder fuels" and remove them as quickly as they can.

After explaining the problems GGOs have finding suitable nesting substrate and the conflict with the risk of fire, Jessie jumped right on it.

"Do you mean," he said, "if we built a nesting platform that baby owls could stay in and not fall out, they might have a better chance to survive?"

When I answered in the affirmative, he turned to his mom and dad and asked, "Do you think we can do that?" And they did.

I "just happened" to have a prototype to show them, and the drawings for making others like it, which Jessie looked at from every angle. You could almost hear the gears meshing and the tires smoking.

Father and son took my prototype and drawings, went to The Home Depot, who gave them the plywood and screws, and before long they had five platforms cut out, assembled and ready to go. Sisters Forest Service biologist Monty Gregg then went out with Jessie and his dad and found locations within and adjacent to the B&B Fire area that looked suitable to place the platforms.

I asked Jessie why he wanted to take the job on, and this is what he said: "The main reason I'm doing this project for the great gray owls is so that I can learn and help others learn about their behavior, feeding and nesting patterns, and numbers in the Sisters area. Also, I have always been interested in owls and hope that through this project I might get to know them a bit better."

Monty lined up two Forest Service tree-climbers who quickly agreed to take part in the owl project, and the proverbial light showed up at the end of the tunnel.

If you happen to travel through the B&B burn sometime in the future, you may notice one or more of Andy's screech owl nesting boxes, and if you're really observant, one of Jessie's GGO nesting platforms. They are there because of a young person's curiosity and his parents' willingness to follow through on his questions.