Animals

The Call That Changed Everything: Western Screech Owls Return to Cortes Island

Originally published, as part 7 of the Cortes Island Resonance series by the Cortes Community Radio Society.

“The only word I can find to describe that feeling… is gobsmacked,” exclaimed field biologist Sabina Leader Mense. 

She was referring to the moment she heard a Western Screech Owl respond during a call playback survey near Bullock Bluff on Cortes Island. It was nearly midnight, the final station of the night, and her team had conducted over a hundred surveys without a single response. This owl’s call — unmistakable and repeated 12 times — marked the first confirmed sighting since 2017.

What followed was disbelief, euphoria, and relief. “It instantly galvanized me into doing everything I could to protect them,” said Leader Mense. That mission became more urgent just weeks later when she and her husband Dennis detected a second Western Screech Owl, confirming the species’ continuing, if precarious, presence in Cortes’ wild northern forest. 


Sabina Leader Mense in the skiff at night – submitted photo

A Vanishing Voice

Once common along the BC coast, Western Screech Owls (Megascops kennicottii kennicottii) are now a species of special concern, with estimates suggesting only 1,500 to 3,000 remain in the wild. Surveys indicate a long-term population decline of 20–30%, driven by:

  • Habitat loss, especially of old growth forests with cavity-bearing trees.
  • Urban development and road mortality.
  • Predation by Barred Owls, a larger, more aggressive species that has expanded westward, often following human activity.

Their absence is not only ecological — it’s acoustic. 

“Our soundscapes are changing,” said Autumn Barrett-Morgan, who co-leads FOCI’s owl project. “We’re losing the sounds of the forest. The Screech Owl is now a missing sound.”

Head of a tiny Western Screech Owl peers out from its cavity and down a tree trunk towards the viewer
A Western Screech Owl peers down the tree trunk – photo credit Blair Dudeck

The Project Behind the Rediscovery

In 2021, the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) launched a multiyear project funded by the federal Habitat Stewardship Program to search for and support Western Screech Owls across Cortes, Read, Maurelle, and Sonora Islands.

Key partners included:

  • The Ministry of Water, Lands and Natural Resource Stewardship, which provided equipment, expertise, and data analysis.
  • The Pacific Megascops Research Alliance, which developed protocols for owl surveys across BC.
  • Field leads Sabina Leader Mense and Autumn Barrett-Morgan, FOCI’s core researchers and contractors.
  • Community volunteers.

“We’re really lucky to be doing this work,” said Helen Hall, FOCI’s Executive Director. “This is the first time we’ve partnered this closely with the Ministry. The data is going back federally and provincially, putting Cortes at the center of an important conservation effort.” 


The Western Screech Owl Laurel Bohart recently mounted at Wild Cortes – R Hales photo

What They Found

Across three seasons of surveys and deployments, the team documented the following:

  • Cortes Island – Two confirmed owl call responses from the remote northern peninsula. No Barred Owls detected in the area, suggesting it may serve as a refugia.
  • Read Island – Confirmed call heard from Cortes, across the channel. 
  • Maurelle Island – One owl observed but killed (likely by predation).
  • Sonora Island – Resident reports of annual owl calls in spring. ARUs deployed.

Throughout the project, youth and citizen scientists helped install autonomous recording units (ARUs) and build nest boxes. One highlight was a community event on Read Island where FOCI staff and volunteers, including Manuel Perdisa, brought pre-cut kits across by boat for a hands-on nest box building day. 

Two women holding sound devices standing, looking at each other, in the snow
Sabina Leader Mense and Autumn Barrett-Morgan – submitted photo

What’s Next?

The formal project wrapped in spring 2024, but FOCI has applied for a two-year renewal to continue surveys, expand habitat support, and advocate for stronger protections. The goal is to designate parts of the Discovery Islands as wildlife habitat areas under the Forest and Range Practices Act, restricting logging and ensuring nesting areas remain undisturbed.

As Helen Hall put it, “We don’t want to see any more old growth forests cut down. This project is one more argument for a moratorium on logging those areas.”

The next step includes deeper ecological analysis, further nest box monitoring, and community events like the March 25th listening workshop at Linnaea Farm, where residents heard actual owl recordings and learn more about the elusive birds now confirmed to still live among them.

The Cortes Island Resonance Series:

  1. Restoring Life to Dillon Creek 
  2. Friends of Cortes Island at Mansons Landing Provincial Park
  3. 30 Years of Foreshore Monitoring on Cortes Island 
  4. European Green Crabs Reach Cortes Island
  5. Sabina Leader Mense & the Wolves of Cortes: A Story of Coexistence
  6. Vanishing Voices: The Global At Risk Species Crisis and Cortes Island
  7. The Call That Changed Everything: Western Screech Owls Return to Cortes Island 
  8. The Story of the Island’s Streamkeepers

Top image credit: Bullock Bluff on Cortes Island – courtesy Sabina Leader Mense

The Cortes Island Resonance series is produced with financial assistance provided by the Strathcona Regional District ‘s Grant In Aid Program and the Cortes Island Community Foundation.