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 may take pleasure in 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 very important habitat for huge numbers of shorebirds, waterfowl, and different migratory birds, together with Burrowing Owls.   

Gillmor employees know of 4 burrows presently occupied by owls on the sanctuary. The burrows in use have 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.   

With regards 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 the vast majority of the Utah Burrowing Owl inhabitants migrates south towards their wintering grounds within the fall.   

Whereas the employees is happy about this 12 months’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 on for nesting. Motivated by the present presence of Burrowing Owls, Gillmor’s workforce is working to search out methods to assist and encourage new nesting on the sanctuary.  

Audubon’s Saline Lakes Program can also be based mostly out of Salt Lake Metropolis and centered on Nice Salt Lake’s hen populations. Regardless of sharing an workplace, Audubon’s Saline Lakes workforce and Gillmor Sanctuay’s employees hardly ever get to be out within the subject collectively, outdoors 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 other way up with ten ft of drain line connected. 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 all renter, these burrowing birds have an inventory of must-haves they’re in search of on the subject of selecting a house:  

• Unobstructed views   
  A transparent and open line of sight, 360 levels across the burrow not solely supplies luxurious views, but in addition the crucial potential to detect approaching predators.   

• A 1-bedroom or 2-bedroom, not less than  
  Not followers of consuming the place they sleep, burrowing owls desire two or extra burrows adjoining to one another, leaving loads of room for nesting, consuming, and chilly storage for his or her prey. They are going to 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.  

Protecting this listing in thoughts, Gillmor’s employees 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 precise location and the unreal 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 connected drain line that can function a tunnel into the burrow.  

As soon as the holes have been deep sufficient, mesh wire was laid down and lined on the backside of the outlet to assist shield in opposition to nest predators digging into the nesting chamber from beneath. The following step was to position the drums within the floor and guarantee their correct depth earlier than burying them as soon as extra. The ultimate step concerned pushing a protracted, make-shift plunger into the drain line to create an excellent layer of filth within the tunnel, making certain the owl’s ft gained’t fall into the divots of the corrugated tubing.   

Whereas it is 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 collection of burrows with the same design. Synthetic burrows have 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 massive mammals, just like the bison, and are repeatedly maintained to make sure they’re prepared for nesting owls. A really excessive proportion of the unreal burrows at Antelope Island are utilized by Burrowing Owls, a constructive signal for the workforce’s efforts at Gillmor Sanctuary.    

Whereas it’s a little bit late within the season, migratory owls can nonetheless be arriving and in search of burrows, that means there could possibly be new tenants earlier than summer time in the event that they’re fortunate sufficient to come across the burrows. The hope is for final 12 months’s hatchlings to maneuver in and be on the hunt for an area to name their very own this 12 months. If none transfer on this season, Gillmor’s employees hopes for residents within the subsequent 12 months, as it could actually take time for native populations to search out the brand new burrows, and plenty of is perhaps returning to burrows they’ve used prior to now.  

Within the meantime, the workforce will monitor the burrows, because the design permits employees to test inside by the highest of the drum which permits for upkeep checks. Gillmor employees hope to put in dwell stream cameras as soon as owls take up residence within the burrows.   

Keep tuned to see if the Gillmor and Saline Lakes workforce may simply be the latest and hottest homebuilders for Burrowing Owls at Nice Salt Lake. We’ll let the long run tenants be the decide.