Banding Together for Burrowing Owls 

Whereas the Nice Salt Lake Basin’s rising human inhabitants is feeling the consequences of a housing scarcity, Audubon hopes that Burrowing Owls would possibly get pleasure from some newly constructed, luxurious burrows on prime lakefront property. Hire free, in fact.  

Audubon’s Edward L. & Charles F. Gillmor Sanctuary sits on the southeastern shore of Nice Salt Lake, offering important habitat for huge numbers of shorebirds, waterfowl, and different migratory birds, together with Burrowing Owls.   

Gillmor workers know of 4 burrows at present occupied by owls on the sanctuary. The burrows in use had been beforehand dug by badgers and coyotes. Pairs of Burrowing Owls have been noticed on the entrances, however solely time will inform whether or not egg-filled nests are inside.   

Relating to their properties, Burrowing Owls are opportunistic and make the most of present holes and burrows left behind by different mammals. These short-term tenants are renters, not householders, as nearly all of the Utah Burrowing Owl inhabitants migrates south towards their wintering grounds within the fall.   

Whereas the workers is worked up about this yr’s tenants, surveys point out a decline within the breeding inhabitants on the sanctuary.   

Declining numbers throughout the Burrowing Owls’ vary has been attributed to habitat loss and declines within the burrowing mammals that dig the burrows the owls rely upon for nesting. Motivated by the present presence of Burrowing Owls, Gillmor’s crew is working to seek out methods to help and encourage new nesting on the sanctuary.  

Audubon’s Saline Lakes Program can be based mostly out of Salt Lake Metropolis and targeted on Nice Salt Lake’s hen populations. Regardless of sharing an workplace, Audubon’s Saline Lakes crew and Gillmor Sanctuay’s workers not often get to be out within the area collectively, exterior of occasional monitoring and surveys. With spring migration underway, and temperatures not fairly heat sufficient for biting bugs, it was the prime time for the 2 groups to band collectively and spend a day on the sanctuary constructing new properties for the owls.

Zach Higgins, senior coordinator of land administration at Gillmor, constructed two synthetic nest chambers utilizing two halves of a 55-gallon drum, every flipped the wrong way up with ten toes of drain line hooked up. The chambers are supposed to mimic a pure nesting habitat for Burrowing Owls.   

Whereas they’re opportunistic, that doesn’t imply the owls aren’t choosy. Like every renter, these burrowing birds have a listing of must-haves they’re searching for relating to selecting a house:  

• Unobstructed views   
  A transparent and open line of sight, 360 levels across the burrow not solely gives luxurious views, but additionally the crucial means to detect approaching predators.   

• A 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom, no less than  
  Not followers of consuming the place they sleep, burrowing owls favor two or extra burrows adjoining to one another, leaving loads of room for nesting, consuming, and chilly storage for his or her prey. They’ll usually lay eggs in a single burrow and cache prey in one other shut by.  

• Close by eating choices   
  Plentiful sources of meals, like rodents and bugs, are important when selecting their new spot.  

Preserving this listing in thoughts, Gillmor’s workers scouted the right location on the sanctuary to put in the nest chambers: the highest of a slight embankment with quick grass and no timber or tall bushes in sight.   

With the correct location and the bogus burrows constructed, there was just one factor left to do: begin digging.   

The groups needed to dig deep sufficient to completely submerge the drums, in addition to the hooked up drain line that may function a tunnel into the burrow.  

As soon as the holes had been deep sufficient, mesh wire was laid down and lined on the backside of the outlet to assist defend towards nest predators digging into the nesting chamber from beneath. The subsequent step was to put the drums within the floor and guarantee their correct depth earlier than burying them as soon as extra. The ultimate step concerned pushing an extended, make-shift plunger into the drain line to create a good layer of dust within the tunnel, making certain the owl’s toes received’t fall into the divots of the corrugated tubing.   

Whereas this can be a pilot program, the hope is that putting in these synthetic burrows will assist the native Burrowing Owl inhabitants by offering extra nesting habitat. 

Comparable efforts have been profitable on the neighboring Antelope Island on Nice Salt Lake, the place Hawk Watch Worldwide manages a set of burrows with the same design. Synthetic burrows had been put in after the introduction of bison, who collapsed many pure burrows across the island by stepping on them. These synthetic burrows are bolstered to forestall trampling by giant mammals, just like the bison, and are commonly maintained to make sure they’re prepared for nesting owls. A really excessive proportion of the bogus burrows at Antelope Island are utilized by Burrowing Owls, a optimistic signal for the crew’s efforts at Gillmor Sanctuary.    

Whereas it’s a bit late within the season, migratory owls can nonetheless be arriving and searching for burrows, that means there may very well be new tenants earlier than summer season in the event that they’re fortunate sufficient to discover the burrows. The hope is for final yr’s hatchlings to maneuver in and be on the hunt for an area to name their very own this yr. If none transfer on this season, Gillmor’s workers hopes for residents within the subsequent yr, as it may well take time for native populations to seek out the brand new burrows, and lots of is perhaps returning to burrows they’ve used previously.  

Within the meantime, the crew will monitor the burrows, because the design allows workers to verify inside by the highest of the drum which permits for upkeep checks. Gillmor workers hope to put in reside stream cameras as soon as owls take up residence within the burrows.   

Keep tuned to see if the Gillmor and Saline Lakes crew would possibly simply be the most recent and hottest homebuilders for Burrowing Owls at Nice Salt Lake. We’ll let the long run tenants be the decide.