Burrowing owls strive to survive drought, too busy to bear new crop

Article Date: 2007-07-16   Source: http://www.marconews.com   Comments: 0

By Jeremy Cox

Marco Island, Florida, U.S.A. - Many burrowing owls were too busy trying to survive an 18-month drought to bear a new crop of owls this year on Marco Island, their primary nesting area in Collier County.

''They didn't have enough energy or food to produce young,'' said Nancy Richie, an environmental specialist with the city of Marco Island. ''And if they were able to lay eggs, there wasn't enough food to feed the chicks.''

Of the 107 nesting sites, only 45 contained chicks. That level of productivity was off 20 percent compared with the previous two seasons, Richie said.

Rain has been in short supply not only on Marco but across southern Florida since the fall of 2005. Under normal conditions, water gives rise to insects, frogs, anoles and rodents — which, taken together, add up to a burrowing owl's diet.

During the five-month nesting season, which officially ended Saturday, owl watchers often found dead, shriveled-up owls beside the openings to their tunnels on Marco. Since it didn't appear that dogs or other animals were involved, Richie figured that the owls died simply of starvation.

"That's how a species handles environmental change. Basically, the strong survive" she said.

Richie documented 18 instances in which burrowing owl pairs apparently on the brink of mating fled a nest. For so many birds to disappear during one season is "kind of alarming," she said.

State wildlife officials have designated the tiny bird of prey as a species of special concern. Burrowing owls are vanishing under pressure from bulldozers, deadly attacks by predators and the overuse of pesticides.

This year, the estimated burrowing owl population on Marco stood at 113. Aside from a smattering of nests in Golden Gate Estates, the owls don't lay their eggs anywhere else in Collier, Richie said.

The Marco nests resulted in 141 chicks, down from last year's estimate of more than 200.

It is illegal to destroy a burrow without a permit, but that's exactly what happened in two cases this year. Both, oddly, came on the street: Copperfield Court.

One burrow was filled with wet sand at a home construction site, but the sand didn't appear to come from the property. Down the street, someone plugged another burrow full of mangoes.

Neither incident produced enough evidence for the state to press charges, Richie said.

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2006-11-01 - 2 burrowing owls make themselves at home on Site C by Ed Bania - Marco Island, Florida, U.S.A.
2006-08-16 - You can help homeless burrowing owls by Kara Kenney - Marco Island, Florida, U.S.A.
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2005-05-04 - Marcophile: Our owls: good news and bad news by Chris Curle - Marco Island, Florida, U.S.A.
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