Home Forums Gear Photography Burrowing Owl Chicks

Cookie went out, did an overnighter in the truck, and dashed to her blind about 04:00 this morning. Too much foliage obscuring their favorite spot, so she'll likely return and try a different angle with a better view this weekend. Adults appear to be molting and look pretty rough.

One pair had 9 young, and she could not get a count on the second burrow due to intervening sagebrush.

A couple chicks


An adult right at the crack of dawn

I love her work! FWIW, they are a lot easier to photograph in a prairie dog town.

Yes. Our Belding's ground squirrels are not too good at clear cutting. Sagebrush, and for a change, a decent grass year is making things a little tough to see at ground level here in eastern Oregon. Gives us another reason to get back out though. Hope to have some better follow ups about next Monday or so.

While Cookie was chasing the owls, I got to sit in the truck about 1/2 mile out. Hell froze over, and she left her lesser outfit with me.. I had a single visitor at the adjacent gatepost and managed to get a couple pics. I also saw a badger and some Beldings ground squirrels, but they were not within range.

Northern Shrike:

Not a lot of these around, as one might see about 3 or so in a full day of roaming our sage brush wilderness. Slightly less than robin sized and a predatory bird taking insects, mice, lizards, nestlings etc. Best known for impaling victims on thorns or barbed wire for storage.

In rare instances I've seen these back in WVa where most of the song birds will mob them in an effort to drive them off. Out here in Oregon, they seem to be mostly ignored.

The northerns are pretty scarce back east these days. We only have the loggerheads down here. The common name that I hear most is "butcher birds" and you don't hear much affection for them. I think that they are kind of cool, though, and I like to see them when I walk the dogs in the evening.

Cookie headed out last night and was in place this morning. Frosty and in the upper 20's out in the desert at sun up. Got her blind well positioned and did a better job on the youngsters. No streaks on the kid's breast. I went off for a walk and saw 1 coyote, 3 pronghorn, a couple Beldings ground squirrels, and some chipmunks. No camera though for me.

First couple kids out at sun up.


Then a couple more.


And then time for flight practice.

Cookie did well on the last trip. Nice warm morning light on the feathers.

Those are fantastic shots. I grew up with burrowing owls in the cow pasture. They often took over an abandoned badger den.

I sure appreciate Cookie's photos.

Nice.

Saw a bunch of them in Florida as a lad.

Steelhead:

Was briefly a non believer on Florida, but Goggled up a range map and damn they do happen there. A goodly portion of South America as well.

Mostly use old badger diggings here. Who or what preps their holes down in Florida?

They can and do dig their own holes.

That said, there are a bunch of gopher turtle holes around along with armadillo.


Where I would see them as a kid (I have some photos in an album), is all housing now.

When I was down on the ranch, we reintroduced prairie dogs into four different sites that had been old dog towns before they were eradicated in the early 1960s. After the PDs got out of the artificial burrows and started digging their own, the little owls found them right away and moved right in. There are always a few to be found using abandoned kangaroo rat dens and the occasional badger hole, but the PD dens are apparently just the right size and seem to be much preferred.

If you guys get a chance you need to see a movie called "Hoot." It's all about development vs. burrowing owls. Scott's remark about sub-divisions where the owls used to burrow is right on point.

On the other hand it's a bit of eco freak fluff, but it's fun and features Jimmy Buffet as a school teacher and he supplies the background music. It's based on the young adult novel of the same name by Carl Hiassen. Hiassen is a little left leaning but he gets a pass because he's a funny bastid and writes good stories.

In this region it's primarily badgers that do the digging, and the owls are few and far (like many miles) between. In some rare instances they're said to be colonial. At Cookie's recent setup there were 3 families within about 80 yds and they've held constant for the last three years that we've been aware of the location. We're aware of a 4th pair about 5 miles to the west. Must be reasonably tough little birds having to deal with all the predators (badgers, weasels, snakes, rats, etc capable of accessing the nests.

Several years ago we rounded a bend on an extremely remote desert road and saw about 30 birds atop scattered sagebrush covering about 2 acres. Last year we saw nothing in that same patch. I don't know if they have any free water demands, but there were no surface sources within 5 miles of that area for the last 2 years.

Have a good one,