Albany Democrat-Herald

A dead owl was spotted in North Albany, apparently hit by a car, and at first everybody involved thought it was a spotted owl.

That might have had some implications for further development in North Albany because the northern spotted owl is listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

But on further examination, the bird turned out to be a barred owl, Sgt. Mari Chambers of the Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division said this morning.

Bill Root, a former city council candidate and a resident of Valley View Drive N.W., told the Democrat-Herald about the owl in a note on Saturday.

He said one of his neighbors, Dave Perry, had spotted the dead bird on Crocker Lane that morning, taken it home and called the OSP. Sgt. Chambers came, took the owl and said she thought it was a spotted one.

Today, she said she had taken the bird to a biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who determined that it was actually of the barred variety.

According to reports over the last several years, the barred owl has been moving into the American West, expanding its habitat and, in Northwest forests, displacing the northern spotted owl.

Sgt. Chambers, who is in charge of the OSP Wildlife Division in Salem and Albany, said whenever someone reports a dead eagle or possibly protected owl, she takes it away to remove the temptation that someone might keep the feathers.

Keeping feathers of a protected bird is against the law, she said.

In his note to the paper, Root made the point that the presence of spotted owls would have implications for owners who wanted to develop large wooded properties in the area. Owners might have to do a survey to determine whether there was nesting activity.

"There is a large wooded area close to where the bird was hit," Root wrote. He referred to a 46-acre property at the southwest corner of Crocker Lane and Valley View Drive, where the Albany Planning Commission last year approved a 179-lot subdivision named Albany Heights.

The property has about 1,000 mature trees, and about half would be cut for the development. The tree felling has not started yet.