This month's featured zoology books
at Amazon.com:

North American Owls: Journey Through a Shadowed World

Owls of the World: Their Lives, Behavior and Survival

The Raptor Almanac

Michael's Blog: A Day in the Life of a Zoologist

Burrowing owl habitat restoration (posted April 5, 2006)

I've been working on another project in southern California involving burrowing owls since late 2003. A city located in the Inland Empire is constructing a power plant, and hired my company to help navigate through environmental laws that would affect construction of the plant. The city has done an awesome job in not only complying with existing laws that protect sensitive biological resources, but in going above and beyond what was required. Here is the story of what I've been able to accomplish on the site with the city's support.

In December 2003, prior to construction of the power plant, we surveyed the site for sensitive biological resources. We discovered a burrowing owl inhabiting a burrow located beneath a pile of boulders located in the middle of the site. We consulted with biologists from the California Energy Commission, who recommended that since the construction of the power plant would destroy burrowing owl habitat, the city would have to provide habitat for burrowing owls in areas adjacent to the plant. We decided that a large hillside located adjacent to the plant would be an appropriate location for the burrowing owl habitat.

As the power plant construction neared completion, the city started planning the landscaping for the power plant's grounds. Since a large portion of the grounds were to be used for burrowing owl habitat, the city asked for recommendations for landscaping in this area. I came up with a plan for revegetating the area with native plants - a habitat restoration that would be suitable for use by burrowing owls. In addition to revegetating the area with native plants, the habitat restoration also included installation of six artificial burrows (pictured at right), which we've just completed last week. The area within 30 feet of the burrows will be vegetated with native grasslands species, including perennial grasses and annnual wildflowers. Outside of this area, the hillside will be vegetated in coastal sage scrub species, including California sagebrush, flat-topped buckwheat, black sage, white sage, California sunflower bush, brittlebush, lemonadeberry, coast prickly pear, and yellow penstemon, among others. The habitat restoration will benefit not only burrowing owls that may come back to the area, but also many other species of native birds. I'll keep you posted on the progress of the revegetation effort, and use of the area by wildlife. Hopefully one of those species will include burrowing owl!

UPDATE (November 6, 2006)

The restoration isn't complete yet, but we've already had burrowing owls return to the site and use the artificial burrows! There have been two owls observed on the site, and there's evidence (excrement, feathers, and pellets) of owls having used three of the artificial burrows we've installed. The owls that we've seen are likely single individuals migrating through the area, but one appears to have really taken to one of our burrows, and he may decide to spend the winter there (see photo).

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