[obol] Habitat mitigation for BUOW

From: Lars Per Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx>
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:58:48 -0800
*************

   Burrowing Owls are varied in their life strategies. Some are sedentary, 
others migrate over a thousand miles one way. Bill Thackaberry covered the 
Corvallis CBC sector closest to the owl we are talking about . He had that 
sector for 0ver fifty years and at some point was told the Linn County BUOW 
nested around Spokane. I'm not aware of breeding in the Willamette Basin, but 
that part of Linn County would be the likely spot if they did. My father 
travelled extensively in the state while mapping soils. He reported BUOW at 
Camas Swale, near Creswell, in the 60s. He seemed to remember them in the 
summer, and definitely near culverts. But the accumulation of decades of data 
in the mind can lead to some fuzzy facts.
      Burrowing Owls have long thrived in prairie dog "towns". Something like 
one percent  of the original area occupied by dog towns remains. Then I read on 
this list that badger dens are important to them, and those too have been 
largely eliminated. I might add that Mountain Plover are also a bit of a 
dogtown "obligate" and I read in High Country News that their world population 
is down to 6000. This is a very rare winter visitor to exactly the same parts 
of the Willamette Valley that BUOW frequent. I imagine we'd see them more often 
if there were more prairie dogs in Wyoming. Burrowing Owls were regular at the 
Yaquina South Jetty in the 70s. After a complete hiatus of decades there has 
been a weak level of detections at sandy parts of the central coast the past 
few years.
      I strongly suspect that conditions on the breeding grounds is the main 
factor for their demise. Does the understated resurgence at the coast mean 
anything? So many other species have declined, with varying degrees of public 
interest, Meadowlarks for instance. I don't know if any human responses here on 
the wintering grounds will make a difference, but the vast majority of BUOW 
breeding occurs on public lands and has the potential for improvement.    Lars 

OBOL archives: www.freelists.org/archive/obol
Manage your account or unsubscribe: //www.freelists.org/list/obol
Contact moderators: obol-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[obol] Habitat mitigation for BUOW

Other related posts:
