One morning, two of us on a burrowing owl treasure hunt followed someone else’s track around the top of an old dump at Hayward Regional Shoreline searching for the owl that had been reported there the morning before. A small brown body in the grass drew our attention, but two ears revealed it to be a ground squirrel, then another and another. While we didn’t count, there must have been 35 squirrels in the field, and as many western meadowlarks, some displaying their yellow bellies in the sun and others flashing their white outer tail feathers.
Suddenly I adjusted the spotting scope. Come, look, quick. The two large, forward-facing yellow eyes with a white line above and between them, with no visible ears, confirmed that we’d found a burrowing owl. After a moment, the bird disappeared, likely back into the burrow borrowed from a ground squirrel.
The only ground-nesting owl, the 10-inch-tall brownish birds dig burrows but more often nest in burrows dug by ground squirrels or prairie dogs, preferably with two or more exits, for safety. Several pairs of owls will nest near each other—there’s safety in numbers and squirrels also warn of possible danger. Some owls migrate to a milder climate for winter and again look to borrow burrows or rock piles with holes where they can hide when threatened. Hawks, dogs, and feral or outdoor house cats are major predators. Wind farms, especially at Altamont Pass, kill hundreds of burrowing owls each year. Poison intended for ground squirrels also poisons owls. As fields are turned into housing, stores, and parking lots, burrowing owls have lost their breeding and wintering spaces.
Burrowing owls used to nest in Alameda. A friend remembers taking her son to see 40 or more around the Oakland airport 50 years ago. In the 1960s, the airport hosted the largest breeding colony of burrowing owls in the East Bay. Now there are only about forty-five nesting pairs in the entire Bay Area, but more owls visit in the winter, often returning to the same spot. An owl sometimes winters at Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park, but it’s not always visible when it is there, and it can be hard to find. Off-leash dogs may threaten the owl, despite the signs highlighting the park’s leash rules.
Unlike most owls, which usually roost quietly throughout the day, burrowing owls are active both day and night. Sometimes the owls are barely visible in grassy fields, but they are also seen standing beside a burrow, perching on a rock, on riprap at the water’s edge. A relaxed bird may stand on one leg, but move to both legs, prepared to fly, when alerted to a possible threat.
The owls eat insects, such as grasshoppers and beetles, but also small animals like mice, snakes, frogs, and even small ground squirrels.
Females brood six to 12 eggs, leaving the burrow only for a few minutes to feed. Both parents raise the blind and totally dependent chicks. At about two weeks, chicks sometimes step outside, but they rely on burrows for safety until about four weeks, when they can fly short distances. Adults will defend a nest burrow from predators, especially after eggs have hatched. Juveniles can be identified by their buff-colored breast, in contrast to the adult’s brown bars on a light brown breast.
As their numbers have dropped over the years, the burrowing owl has been identified as “a species of concern” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Recently the California Fish and Game Commission decided to consider whether the owl should be listed as Endangered in California, which would give the owl greater protection than it now has. The Commission’s action starts a year-long review of research about how the owl is doing and what it needs to survive where it now breeds and winters. During that year, the owl will have the same protection throughout California as it will if it is listed as Endangered.
A few years ago, I saw a burrowing owl in the VA-managed wildlife reserve at Alameda Point. If you stood at the right spot at the fence, looked in the right direction with a spotting scope, and the bird was cooperating, you could see the winter visitor. A friend watched one land on a post at Waterfront Park one November evening. One of the people who surveys birds twice a month on the reserve said she saw five burrowing owls there one day this past October, so they still visit us, just very cautiously in a place where they are not disturbed. Maybe with more protection, more will visit Alameda, and I won’t have to search so hard to see them.
Marjorie Powell moved to Alameda from the East Coast in 2014. A member of Golden Gate Bird Alliance, she serves on its Alameda Conservation Committee, as well as the Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve, and tries to go birding frequently.
This article is part of a series written by Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Reserve (FAWR) members, FAWR is a Conservation Committee of Golden Gate Bird Alliance (formerly Audubon). To find out more about birds and GGBA’s free guided trips see www.goldengatebirdalliance.org.
