This month's featured Critter is the Northern Spotted Owl.  By Pat Benik

Steve and I got a call from the Forest Service in Hathaway Pines, early one morning.  They had a Spotted owl that had been found in the road.  He had been hit by 2 cars.

     The Northern Spotted Owl is a medium sized owl.  A brown color with spots around his face, head and body.  They are very territorial and prefer old growth forests.  They prefer areas with large trees with broken tree tops and deformed limbs or large holes used for nesting.  They do not migrate, but they will shift there areas due to seasonal changes.

     Their diet includes flying squirrels, wood rats, mice, and other small rodents.  They also have been know to eat birds.

     We were very upset not be be able to save this guy.  His injuries were too extensive.  He was taken to the Animal Eye Center in Rocklin where he was diagnosed with a ruptured left eye, with the possiblility of his sinus cavity also being fractured.

     The Spotted Owl is on the Endangered Species List.  These owls are in threat of loosing their habitat with a loss of old forest, natural disasters, and the Barred owl whose populations have been expanding from the Eastern United States into Western Canada the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.  The Barred owl has displaced the Spotted Owl by taking over forest and hunting areas.

     It was my honor to have worked with such a beautiful bird, but very saddened to have lost him.  But it was not all a loss.  The bird was given to Dr. Carla Cicero at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, at the University of California in Berkeley where he will be mounted and put on display.

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