Friends of Cortes Island would like to offer huge thanks to Emily Upham Mills, Sabina Leader Mense and Autumn Barrett Morgan for their brilliant presentations at our In Search of the Western Screech Owl Event on Saturday 25th March.

We had a great afternoon absorbed in learning about this elusive owl, why it is in trouble and what is being done to help both provincially, and here on Cortes Island and our neighbouring discovery islands.

This included Emily, a Ministry Ecosystems Biologist providing an overview of screech owl distribution and conservation efforts provincially and describing how bioacoustics are used to determine their presence. Followed by Sabina outlining FOCI's survey efforts and how she had discovered screech owls on the north of the island, by undertaking some intrepid night time surveys by boat.

Autumn rounded off the afternoon by celebrating forest soundscapes, giving people chance to listen to and absorb themselves in a recording of the forest at night.

A great time was had by all.

Thanks also to Linnaea for their great help in setting up for the event.

For more information about the project please visit our website HERE