If there was any issue about me driving by the owl for a photo, it wasn’t
expressed by the owl itself. It continued right where it was during and after
my passing. Many other people before me were stopping as they passed by the owl
and the owl didn’t move. Even so, I turned around on the grassy shoulder
without driving by the owl at all when we were there earlier in the car. If the
owl continues and many people come on rainy days, they can’t keep turning
around on the grassy shoulder without getting hung up. They will have to go on
by the owl to get to a gravel drive to turn around. Do you really really think
folks are going to keep their eyes straight ahead as they go by the owl?
Frank Lyne
frank@xxxxxxxxxxx - near Dot in Logan County, KY
On Feb 23, 2020, at 7:23 PM, brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
The appearance of a Burrowing Owl in Kentucky is obviously exceptional! There
was much discussion today about the group taking care not to disturb it.
Several of us discussed options for posting and describing how to visit the
bird. I am going to try to sum up what I heard from others and pass along to
those who may wish to visit the location. Most is simple common sense and
expected protocol. This little bird is out of place, but he/she has found a
micro-habitat that suits it for the winter and it's success at remaining
there is mostly in our hands as visitors to help keep it undisturbed. It
likely has everything else it needs.
First of all, I want to commend everyone who visited today while I was there
for keeping a safe distance. All afternoon the bird kept mostly hidden in a
depression on one side of the culvert, but no one made an attempt to get it
to move. For the first arrivals this morning, the bird sat up nicely near the
side of the road and one must presume that this is part of its normal
routine. We weren't sure why it hunkered down so long after that, but periods
of highest activity for this species are said to be morning and evening, so
perhaps a combination of mid-day hours, the wind, and maybe even the group of
people standing a hundred feet or so away from it kept it in that position
for an extended period.
I think we need to be particularly cognizant of those morning and evening
hours when the birds are said to be more active ... perhaps remaining in cars
when there at those times. The bird needs to eat and none of us know if we
kept it from doing so today. Visits by birders, of course, should wane in
coming days, but it would seem most prudent to keep more distance when the
bird seems to be and is supposed to be more active.
I must take a little issue with my friend, Frank's, comment about driving by
and looking out the window. This would seem unwise at any time. The bird is
certainly used to cars and buggies moving by it many times during the day,
but stopping or slowing to a crawl anywhere on the culvert would probably be
disruptive. This morning cars were parked as close as about 50 ft away after
coming in slowly and that seemed not to bother the bird. Also ... if you
visit the site ... *FIND* the culvert ahead of you *BEFORE* you get down to
it. The bird is mostly likely going to be right there along the roadside
either on the left or right. Don't get out of the car and walk up to try to
find it. Scan carefully from the car out to either side. It is probably going
to be there or will be back there soon if it has gone out to forage.
By the way ... it is *obvious* to tell when the bird is not settled; a
passing car came too close to it a couple of times and it became much more
alert with raised posture and wide open eyes. Anything one would do to cause
this reaction would be a no-no for sure.
Regarding subspecies (Florida or western) ... looking at Sibley (haven't
looked at Pyle yet), the bird clearly has a white stripe down the middle of
the breast separating the heavy barring on the sides. This is a very obvious
character for the western birds as opposed to the continuous dark band of
barring on the Florida birds ... so my thoughts on the ID are western. I
thought Florida populations were sedentary, but note that Sibley says birds
of both populations have shown up on the east coast. Comments would be
welcome from anyone delving deeper into this topic.
Also ... I believe Roseanna created a "stakeout" hotspot for mapping the bird
in eBird. If you enter this bird into eBird, please use that location and if
you've already entered it and used a different location, it would be best if
you changed the location to the hotspot (not hard to do at all ... holler at
someone if you can't figure out how to do it).
Finally ... it has come to light that some local naturalists have been aware
of the presence of the bird since at least Feb 14th. I'm currently trying to
find out if anyone noticed it before then. Really odd that word of this bird
would originate from more than one source, aye! Perhaps more people notice
more about nature than we'd ever guess?
Oh, and finally, finally ... one reason why this bird is so special is that
the population has declined substantially during the era of human settlement
of North America. They thrive in grasslands, which have been converted to row
crop agriculture and housing (recall our KOS program last year). Back in the
mid-1900s, it was a more regular vagrant east of the Mississipppi. However,
the decline in the population overall has resulted in a significant decline
in the number of vagrants in recent years. In eBird, this seems to be the
easternmost report away from the east coast in the past ten years.
In summary, it seems the only thing that could go wrong for this special bird
would be for us humans to disturb it too much, so please use caution when
visiting it.
bpb, Louisville
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