Rare music is playing in the West Kootenays, and the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program needs the public’s help to find its sources.
With its unusual “bouncing ball” frequency, the seldom-heard love song of the endangered Western screech-owl is in high breeding season in the Arrow Lakes area, said Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program spokesman Angus Glass.
“They are not widely distributed through the province - there are just pockets of them, and we know the West Kootenays are one of them. We know the population is really low - we reckon there is 10 or so pairs in the West Kootenays. We want to reach out and find more,” said Glass, who is requesting the public’s help in finding the rare owl’s romantic call.
The shy birds, Megascops kennicottii, are listed as an endangered species both federally and provincially, the FWCP is looking to track these owls to better understand their distribution, range and habitat use.
“It’s got a very distinctive bouncing ball call - it speeds up towardthe end, as if you’ve dropped a ball,” Glass said.
Not a migratory bird, the western screech-owl is an early breeding species that over-winters here. They look for deciduous trees with cavities - like cottonwoods - and they like open trees, close to water.
“Once we locate a breeding pair we can often tag and track them, and their young, through radio telemetry,” said FWCP wildlife biologist Irene Manley. “We are particularly looking for reports from Trail through to Castlegar and Nelson, and throughout the Slocan Valley to Nakusp.”
The West Kootenays are the perfect setting for the Western screech-owl, Glass said.
“We know there has been prime habitat lost for some species in this area,” Glass said, adding the FWCP has become involved because of the impact B.C. Hydro dams had in that habitat loss back in the 1960s and 1970s.
This project is supported by the FWCP, Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, Columbia Basin Trust and FortisBC. The FWCP is delivered through a partnership between BC Hydro, the Province of B.C. and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
The FWCP funds projects to conserve and enhance fish, wildlife and their supporting habitats affected by BC Hydro owned and operated generation facilities in the Coastal, Columbia and Peace regions of British Columbia.
Other FWCP regional projects include nutrient restoration to put liquid nitrogen and phosphorous on the surface in the Arrow Lakes reservoir to feed phytoplankton and benefit the whole food chain.
The organization also partners with the government on the Kokanee spawning channels at Hill Creek by Galena Bay, as well as a bull trout project.
To listen to its call visit fwcp.ca and click on the owl link.
Suspected sightings can be reported to 250-352-6874 or FWCP@bchydro.com.