{"id":6382,"date":"2012-07-04T16:23:05","date_gmt":"2012-07-04T22:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=6382"},"modified":"2020-08-23T05:35:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-23T11:35:03","slug":"a-plea-for-respect-for-the-burrowing-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/04\/a-plea-for-respect-for-the-burrowing-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"A Plea For Respect For The Burrowing Owl"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there’s a group of birds on the face of the earth that is almost universally loved it seems to me that it would have to be owls.<\/p>\n

Many folks are captivated by them for their large forward-facing eyes, quizzical expressions, eerie vocalizations and the sense of mystery provided by their generally nocturnal habits.\u00a0 Others appreciate their many unique adaptations, such as silent flight and their ability to turn their heads 270 degrees.\u00a0 There’s just something about owls…<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

1\/640, f\/9, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

And for many of us Burrowing Owls are at the pinnacle of that adoration.\u00a0 Their comical antics, especially those of the juveniles, tug at our heartstrings and make us smile.\u00a0 And they’re more accessible to viewing than are most owls because they’re\u00a0active during daylight and spend much of their time on the ground close to their burrows instead of being hidden high up in trees.\u00a0 The flip-side to all this is that Burrowing Owls are extremely vulnerable to\u00a0unthinking human intrusion – especially while they’re nesting\u00a0and caring for chicks or juveniles.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

In Utah the burrows of these owls are typically found among sagebrush, which they often use as perches during early morning.\u00a0 This allows the patient and\u00a0ethical birder or photographer a good look at the birds without having to get too close in order to see through the vegetation usually found in the burrow area.<\/p>\n

It’s not unusual for Burrowing Owls to nest close to roads and\u00a0when they do they become accustomed to traffic.\u00a0 If you stay in your vehicle and are patient with them they will go about their normal, natural business without being unduly\u00a0disturbed.\u00a0 But\u00a0one must be mindful of any sign of nervousness, especially during nesting season.\u00a0 If the owls begin to bob their heads and “chatter” you are too close.\u00a0 These owls will abandon burrows and nests with too much human disturbance and their burrows may collapse from foot traffic so the burrows should never be approached closely.\u00a0 The populations of Burrowing Owls in North America have declined sharply in recent years from the cumulative effects of human activity and they have been listed as a “Species of Special Concern” by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in several western states, including Utah.\u00a0 They need our help and deserve our respect.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

When I photograph Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island I always shoot from my pickup from the edge of the road.\u00a0 When their burrow is close to a road they usually become accustomed to vehicles but as soon as you exit your car their behavior immediately changes and they generally fly off so I never even open the door.\u00a0 However, when they’re caring for chicks or juveniles they’re more reluctant to leave the area so they will typically fly a very short distance and show signs of alarm and stress.<\/p>\n

I’ve included the photo above to show you a typical scenario when I’m photographing Burrowing Owls from my pickup.\u00a0 The red arrow marks the owl.<\/p>\n

Now to the heart of the matter.\u00a0 When I first started photographing birds there were\u00a0Burrowing Owls near some rock piles southeast of the visitor center on Antelope Island and that burrow was active for several years.\u00a0 Then one spring about\u00a0five years ago they\u00a0abandoned the burrow.\u00a0 I asked one of the\u00a0employees at the visitors center what happened and he told me that the owls had been “loved to death” by human\u00a0visitors to the island.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

Then we found another active burrow close to the road and photographed those birds for several years.\u00a0 As\u00a0is typical they were accustomed to the traffic and not disturbed if folks watched and photographed them from their vehicles.\u00a0 Early in the spring last year an obviously mated pair of owls showed up at the burrow and set up residence.\u00a0 \u00a0But as we drove by the burrow on the morning of\u00a0March 13,\u00a02011 both Mia and I were aghast at what we saw – a group of birders and photographers had left their cars and were walking all over the burrow area, including tramping right over top of it.\u00a0 We never once\u00a0saw two owls at the burrow after that day.\u00a0 One of the birds stuck around until mid-summer and then was gone but obviously no chicks were\u00a0produced that year.\u00a0 While this owl was still there it would chatter in alarm and hide low in the sagebrush or fly off almost every time a vehicle stopped along the road – a behavior it had never exhibited before.\u00a0 We got very few images of this bird after “the incident”, partly because we didn’t want to disturb it further.\u00a0 This was one of the last shots I got of that owl, taken on 6\/22\/11.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n

Thankfully, a pair of owls showed up at the burrow area\u00a0this spring and raised a clutch of chicks.\u00a0 We’ve seen at least four of the fledglings and these are two of them.\u00a0 As you can see from their unmarked, buffy bellies\u00a0these birds are\u00a0still\u00a0very young and they\u00a0have been banded.\u00a0 At this age they spend much of their time on the ground hiding among the sagebrush and grasses while waiting for the parents to bring them food.\u00a0 It’s a bonus to catch them up on the sagebrush in good light like this.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"burrowing<\/p>\n

Then it happened again.\u00a0 Last Wednesday, 6\/27\/12, as\u00a0we drove by the burrow area\u00a0there was a photographer who had left his vehicle and was photographing the owls at extremely close range in the immediate vicinity of the burrow and all the sagebrush that these owls habitually perch on (outlined in red).\u00a0 As we passed by with our windows open we could hear the adult owls screeching and chattering in alarm at his intrusion.\u00a0 I drove further up the road, then turned around and watched what was happening through my lens.\u00a0 The image quality of these last four shots is poor because I was so far away from what I was photographing.\u00a0 In this image the photographer is walking toward the owl after it had been\u00a0flushed to a new perch.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

In this extreme crop of the previous image you can more clearly see the owl the photographer is approaching.\u00a0 At this point we were upset by\u00a0what we were seeing and left the area.<\/p>\n

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\"burrowing<\/p>\n

49 minutes later we returned to a slightly different vantage point and the photographer was still shooting the owls.\u00a0 Of course the chicks were trying to hide in the grasses and sagebrush and the adult was fairly reluctant to fly off very far with the chicks in such a vulnerable situation.\u00a0 The photographer had been shooting the adult on the right when he apparently saw one of the chicks on the ground and was aiming at it in this photo.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"burrowing<\/p>\n

When the photographer would get too close the adult would flush and fly to another nearby sagebrush and the photographer would attempt to approach it again.<\/p>\n

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\"photographer<\/p>\n

You can extrapolate just how close this photographer was to one of the owls (out of frame to the right) by noticing the angle of his lens relative to the ground.<\/p>\n

Please, lets all of us give Burrowing Owls the space and respect they need and deserve!\u00a0 If birders, bird photographers and the general public don’t start policing themselves better I’m afraid restrictive regulations will be put\u00a0in place to better protect these fragile\u00a0birds (and others)\u00a0from being “loved to death”.\u00a0 If we don’t do it,\u00a0someone else will surely do it for us and it won’t be pretty.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And if\u00a0that becomes necessary, everyone loses – including the owls.<\/p>\n

“The Shot” simply isn’t worth it.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0 All of\u00a0these images were taken recently\u00a0from my vehicle\u00a0at the sagebrush patch referred to in the post with the exception of the first photo, which was taken several years ago\u00a0along the causeway to Antelope Island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there’s a group of birds on the face of the earth that is almost universally loved it seems to me that it would have to be owls. Many folks are captivated by them for their large forward-facing eyes, quizzical expressions, eerie vocalizations and the sense of mystery provided by their generally nocturnal habits.\u00a0 Others appreciate their many unique adaptations, such as silent flight and their ability to turn their heads 270 degrees.\u00a0 There’s just something about owls…   1\/640, f\/9, ISO 400, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc\u00a0 And for many of us Burrowing Owls are at the pinnacle of that adoration.\u00a0 Their comical antics, especially those of the juveniles, tug at our heartstrings and make us smile.\u00a0 And they’re more accessible to viewing than are most owls because they’re\u00a0active during daylight and spend much of their time on the ground close to their burrows instead of being hidden high up in trees.\u00a0 The flip-side to all this is that Burrowing Owls are extremely vulnerable to\u00a0unthinking human intrusion – especially while they’re nesting\u00a0and caring for chicks or juveniles.     1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc In Utah the burrows of these owls are typically found among sagebrush, which they often use as perches during early morning.\u00a0 This allows the patient and\u00a0ethical birder or photographer a good look at the birds without having to get too close in order to see through the vegetation usually found in the burrow area. It’s not unusual for Burrowing Owls to nest close to roads and\u00a0when they do…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,365,16],"tags":[31,510,62,756,760,755,757,759,758,311],"class_list":["post-6382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-burrowing-owls","category-photography-ethics","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-athene-cunicularia","tag-burrowing-owl","tag-disturbance","tag-harrassment","tag-human-intrusion","tag-juveniles","tag-loved-to-death","tag-species-of-special-concern","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-1EW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}