The Birders Report

Burrowing Owls At Sunset photos by Larry Jordan

I recently got back from a meeting of the Burrowing Owl Consortium that was held in Mountain View, California.  The meeting was hosted by Catherine Portman of the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society and several friends.  There were several studies presented on different aspects of California Burrowing Owl habitat, location, diet and population dynamics.

A few of the presenters were Jack Barclay, a senior wildlife biologist with Albion Environmental, Phil Higgins, a biology instructor at De Anza College in Cupertino and keeper of the Burrowing Owls at Shoreline Park where the meeting was held, and Bob Wilkerson a biologist with the Institute of Bird Populations located in Point Reyes Station.  Bob has just finished a population study of Burrowing Owls in California and I await his final report available in November.  In the meantime…

Bob Power, Executive Director of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society lead some of us early birds on a Burrowing Owl tour of Mission College (where we saw several owls on campus including the one pictured above) and Shoreline Park where we met up with Phil Higgins.  Joyce Bender was one of the people I met on this morning tour before the meeting.  She is the lady who designed and helped install the artificial burrows at Wildhorse Golf Club in Davis, along with Catherine Portman, Jim Rose, the grounds keeper, and local school children.  The remaining images of Burrowing Owls and the artificial habitat were taken there.

This is a section of artificial Burrowing Owl habitat in Davis.  You can see two owls near one of the entrances on the left and one perched on a stake above one of the mounds.  The sign, barely visible in the background reads “Attention: Burrowing Owl Habitat, Proceed with Care, NO CARTS.”  The rope in the foreground separates the habitat from the golf course where I am standing.  The golf cart path is about eight feet from this rope and the owls watch them go by, unimpressed.

If disturbed, the owls will fly, low to the ground, to a burrow entrance and re-access the situation.  The carpet covered plastic serves as a foyer for the young when they emerge from the burrow to help protect them from hawks and other avian predators.

I arrived this day at Wildhorse Golf Club as the sun was beginning to set and the owls were very active.  As I approached the artificial habitat area, several owls moved to new locations.  Three flew up into a nearby oak tree and surveyed their surroundings as joggers ran by on the path behind them, directly opposite the golf cart path, giving me great views of their many different “looks.”  The little guy on the right, which appears to be a juvenile (incomplete eyebrow) is doing the reverse head tilt (with its back to us), I think, questioning why I am still standing there.

With the sun sinking quickly behind the California Coastal Mountains, this Burrowing Owl stood in front of its burrow entrance watching as I reluctantly headed back home.

Western Bluebird Female photo by Larry Jordan

Today is my two year blogoversary! I just wanted to celebrate the bird that got me started in the blogging world, the Western Bluebird.  You may have noticed that I have written many posts about this species.  You can peruse them by typing “Western Bluebird” in the search window in the right hand column and hitting the “Enter” key.

The Western Bluebird is my favorite cavity nesting species and this beautiful female graced my Mom’s birdhouse this last nesting season.

The fall migration is upon us and I am looking forward to the cooler weather and more cool birds to watch.  Happy birding everyone!

Turkey Vulture photos by Larry Jordan

This Turkey Vulture was actually one of the last species we saw at Shasta College for the first bird walk of the fall season.  After weeks of hot weather and not much birding activity, I woke to overcast skies and cooler temperatures [continue reading…]