"Over the past 80 years, one of the most resilient and hearty owls has practically engulfed a continent. Not everyone is pleased."
"They seize suburbs. They seize cities. They seize habitat a continent away. They arrive uninvited. They stay indefinitely. They are indomitable.
Who? Barred owls. Strix varia.
They have taken a fancy to the Pacific Northwest. From an Airbnb next to the I-5 highway plowing through Seattle, Washington, my friend sends me photos of a barred owl perched in a spruce tree outside the kitchen window. In a newspaper, I read about a barred owl in Vancouver, British Columbia, startling people at a bus stop as it swooped past with talons full of pigeon. And in my hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, I watch a squirrel race up and down a chestnut tree, chirping menacingly in a bid to browbeat a barred owl from the neighborhood. Wherever you go, there they are.
Over the past century or so, barred owls have swooped across North America from east to west, inspiring wonder, admiration, and fear about the future of other owls, often all at once. Their story is complicated, as are the labels people attach to them. Are they native or not? And what can their presence in the Pacific Northwest reveal about what it means to belong to a place at this particular moment in history?"
Jude Isabella reports for Hakai magazine July 2, 2024.
SEE ALSO:
"To Save Spotted Owls, US Officials Plan To Kill Hundreds Of Thousands Of Another Owl Species" (AP)
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