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Many here will know Bernard Forsythe of Wolfville & how he has maintained & monitored about 20 nest boxes for Barred Owls for more than 3 decades. Two of these boxes were about the closest to each other of any pair & Bernard assumed they were about 1 km apart. For many years a pair (or succeeding pairs) of Goshawks have nested at various locations between these two owl boxes. You can imagine Bernard's surprise recently when he visited the two existing (i.e. intact, from recent years) Goshawk nests and found another female Barred Owl in possession & down tight on a nest, clearly on eggs. The two owl boxes are also in use & each female already has a full clutch of 3 eggs. The Goshawks have not been seen / found. Bernard asked me to bring my GPS unit & get some exact distances. We did that this morning. One owl box is 415 m from the Goshawk nest being used by the owl. The other owl box is 668 m from the Goshawk / owl nest. The two owl boxes are 1080 m apart i.e. the 3 nests happen to be in a perfect straight line (1080 vs 1083 is closer than the 6-10 m error in the GPS). So Bernard has three Barred Owl nests on a line only 1.08 km long. Also, the entire area is one contiguous woods. There are no significant geographical boundaries. Bernard considers these remarkably close territories. Specific locations will not be divulged & should not be discussed by the few who can figure it out. Bernard does not reveal Goshawk nesting areas. Rick Whitman
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