mondays mulling: burrowing owls

One of the highlights (at least for me) of our Florida vacation was taking morning walks and spotting the Burrowing Owl nests. For the last half of our holiday we were in Cape Coral which is home to the largest population of Burrowing Owls. Charming and tiny, these tiny owls reside in underground burrows.

The Burrowing Owl is one of the smallest owl species in the world and it is unique among all the owl species for living underground. They are often observed sitting in front of their burrows or on nearby perches at any time. 

This burrow is right by a 4-lane road and a parking lot for a public park , lots of traffic, so it gets a sign to alert all the human and motorized traffic about the owl's underground nest. The burrow is just to the right of the wire and the PVC pipes mark the boundary for curious humans to KEEP OUT.

 

I used the zoom function on my phone camera to get a pic of this sweet face but he sure gave me what for. I've never had an owl tell me to "Get off my lawn!"

"You want another photo? This is my best side."

On another morning stroll, we walked past an empty lot where a house recently been torn down and a burrowing owl saw an opportunity to build a nest. To move an owl's nest is costly but to destroy a Burrowing Owl's nest holds a high fine. These owls are a protected species.

As we continued our walk, I asked my friend what he thought the construction workers would do when they saw the owls. He told me that there's a hefty fine for disturbing/destroying an owl's nest but sometimes the construction companies will absorb the fine to build an expensive home. For many reasons, that really bothered me. The next day I googled how to protect a Burrowing Owl's nest in Cape Coral, it directed me to the Friends of Cape Coral Wildlife, and off went an email to the FCCW with photos and a property address telling them about the burrow. The little guy vs. the big guy. Nature vs. man. I hope someone will give a hoot.