Northern Spotted Owl from Cascadia

Richard Wagener

The alert face and form of the Northern Spotted Owl is a striking subject in Richard Wagener’s highly detailed, small-format woodengraving. Wagener is known for his delicate imagery of the flora and fauna that is native to the West Coast, and this nocturnal hunter is one such creature. The image from a series that Wagener is doing featuring the Cascadia geographical area of Western North America.

The northern spotted owl is one of three spotted owl subspecies: northern, California, and Mexican. The northern subspecies territory includes southwestern British Columbia, western Washington and Oregon, and northwestern California south to Marin County. Spotted owls are mostly nocturnal, but they may forage opportunistically during the day. Northern flying squirrels and woodrats are usually the predominant prey. Other prey species such as the red tree vole, red-backed voles, mice, rabbits and hares, birds, and insects may be seasonally or locally important.

The Northern Spotted Owl is Federally listed under the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species in Washington, Oregon and California, and State-listed as threatened in California and Oregon, and endangered in Washington.

Of interest regarding Wagener's woodengraving technique is his exclusive use of single-line as opposed to multiple-line carving tools, meaning that each line is carved individually.