Burrowing owls can be found through much of the western United States, Mexico and Central America and many parts of South America. True to their name, they occupy holes in the ground. But why dig your own when there is a plethora of vacated homes left by other animals? Here in Point Reyes National Seashore, badgers provide them with the majority of their housing needs.
Standing only eight inches tall, these owls weigh in at a whopping five ounces. But don’t let their small size fool you: they are keen hunters and have an incredibly varied diet of small rodents, insects, birds, scorpions, lizards and amphibians. Their most impressive hunting technique is not their speed or stealth, but their strategy. Burrowing owls collect dung from other animals and place it around their burrows; when beetles come in to dine on the dung, the waiting owls snatch them up. They are listed as endangered, and in many places their populations are in steep decline. Their typical habitat is dry pastures and open land, but as this type of habitat is quickly disappearing, they are forced to take up residence in places like cemeteries and university campuses.
We are fortunate to have a reasonable population that spends the winter in Point Reyes, though you will have to look very hard to find them. When they sense danger, they quickly disappear into their burrows. In time, they creep out, exposing only the very top of their head, which blends in perfectly with the dirt and grass of their burrow. Look for two little yellow eyes peeking out as you scan the open fields of the pastoral zone.
One day while exploring the park, I stopped to look at the tule elk grazing off Drakes Beach Road. As I approached the fence with my camera, I noticed a burrowing owl in a vacated badger den just 20 yards from the fence line. In the blink of an eye, the owl was sitting on top of a fence post, bobbing his head up and down. Within seconds it flew from the fence and disappeared into the safety of its burrow.