Urbanning Owls

I’ve already spent too much time covering all the things that are on my platter at the moment, so no need to dwell on those items. This is probably the last time I’ll have a chance to check in on the blog for at least the next week. Brad is planning to be back from assignment before the end of the month and he’ll be officially closing out September for us – assuming he makes it…we received some garbled DM about poison darts, shrunken heads and vats of human soup. I am sure it’s nothing to be concerned about. As concessions for being out of pocket, pulling out one of my favorite featured feathered friends.

Hit the jump unless those yellow eyes are a too intimidating (we’ll understand ha).

For those not familiar with today’s species, it happens to be in my top 10 list. Not only is the Burrowing Owl one of the few you can encounter without trekking out into the heart of night, it managed to elude me for YEARS! Bird vacation after vacation the little check never made it onto my Life List. By the way, did a quick review and my Life List now sits at 399 – just one tiny tick to go and I make it to the 400 echelon (the counter on my nav bar needs to be updated if you happened to notice the disparity there).

That 399 count already included the Burrowing Owl thanks to a roadside encounter in an irrigation culvert down in the Rio Grande Valley back in January 2022 (link here). We were a bit shocked to see that same Owl once again back at that same culvert this year. Ended up taking Ron to that spot on our recent visit so he could finally get this species checked off his list. Little did we know that was going to be the first of THREE Burrowing Owl sightings this year (so far).

Our second encounter was at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge during the same January trip. That encounter is still in the queue waiting to have the images processed for viewer consumption. Those two January encounters have one thing in common…well, even including the first encounter – they are all just head shots. The irrigation Kilroy shots were already featured in the link above, the Anahuac shots were slightly more exciting as we got to see part of its chest!

As you can tell, this encounter was much more successful. When we first spotted this one I exclaimed to Linda “Holy crap, they actually have legs!!”. I should probably give a bit more context on this shoot. A deviation from the other experiences, this Owl comes to you thanks to our March trip out to Las Vegas. While we were researching new places to explore – after hitting all our regular spots first, of course (Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Las Vegas Wash to name a few). Linda, knowing my fondness for the Burrowers, took note of a new place called Las Vegas Urban – Rainbow Owl Preserve. There wasn’t a whole lot about it, but there was recent Owl sightings there and that is the only thing that mattered.

After visiting Desert NWR (which includes the Corn Creek Field Station), Linda followed the directions to the Rainbow Owl Preserve. It is relatively close to Desert and right on our way back to Henderson where we were staying. I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when we pulled up. The coordinates put us at an intersection in the middle of a subdivision. Ummm, do these Owls belong to the local Home Owners Association or what!?! Eventually we noticed a vacant lot across the intersection with a chain link fence around it. Linda pulled alongside it and I jumped out to scan the terrain. There were artificial burrows scattered about the vacant lot – see the cinder block shots above. Skipped a few beats when I noticed this specimen hanging out in front of one of the man-made homes…just 15 feet from the fence. One of the most surreal encounters to date. It had little interest in us and simply kept scanning the surroundings, up, down, left, right. From time to time it would glance over, confirm we were not a threat and go back to scanning. Not very often you can drive up, check off a target bird and be on your way in a matter of minutes. Linda’s kind of birding ha.

I need to get back to the haunt work, so I’ll let you get back to your day/night as well. As mentioned I’ll be checking out from the Internet for at least the next week (beyond quickly getting Brad’s post out next week). Apologies for being so behind on my blog reading – promise I’ll catch up while I am tapering for the 100K which is only two weeks away now. Take care everyone.