Beauty of the barred owl

By Dan Hilborn
Published April 6, 2005


Amateur photographer Al Stewart had the surprise of his life during one of his frequent early afternoon walks around Burnaby Lake last month.

At the spot where the Brunette headwater trail meets the spruce loop trail, Stewart met up with a throng of passersby who were watching a mature barred owl perched on a branch in full view.

"We watched it for almost two hours," Stewart said with a hint of reverential awe in his voice. "The bird was about 16 inches (40 cm) tall from tip to tail, and I'd estimate it was between one and two years old."

Knowing when to take advantage of a good thing, Stewart immediately pulled out his new digital camera and started shooting.

The results of his work can be seen above.

Stewart said the owl first came to notice when a group of BCIT students were conducting a squirrel survey in the area - halfway between the Piper Spit Nature House and the Brunette River dam on the east side of the lake.

The students watched in amazement as the owl swooped into the brush directly in front of their path and, when the big bird came up empty-handed, it alighted in a nearby fir tree and then stayed for two hours.

"Dozens of people came by and took pictures," Stewart said. "This is by far the best photo I've ever taken down by the lake."

Burnaby NOW nature columnist Al Grass said the large owls are becoming more frequent visitors to Burnaby Lake.

"Today, the barred owl is, I suppose, the most common owl around Burnaby, but it wasn't always that way - up until the late 1970s, in fact, they weren't even seen in this area," he said. "Nobody's really sure what happened there, but it did happen, and the barred owl is now the most abundant owl in the area."

The barred owl, Strix varia, is described as a 'rather large owl' with a tip-to-tail length of 17 inches (43 cm) and wingspan of 44 inches (1.1 metres), according to the U.S. Geological Survey website. The barred owls' traditional home is in the southeastern United States, most commonly near the Mississippi River delta. The birds are non-migratory and are typically permanent residents of a single woodland home.

And Grass noted that there are ways to increase your chances of seeing an owl when walking through the Burnaby Lake area. The best advise is to learn to mimic the barred owl's distinctive call, which sounds like 'Who cooks for you.'

During the daytime, look for barred owls roosting in trees, typically near the trunk of a large conifer tree. That's exactly where Stewart snapped this picture.

Listen for crows making an unusual ruckus. Crows tend to become agitated when they are near owls, and a murder of crows will mob an owl or any other bird of prey in the vicinity. "If you see crows diving at a tree or making strange noises, you know there's something there," Grass said. "Sometimes it'll be an owl, and sometimes it'll be a hawk."

But if you do learn to make the owl call, remember to avoid using it when you also want to see other birds.

The call of the predatory owl will scare away other smaller birds and owls, Grass noted.