Meet the Burrowing Owl

I was riding one of my horses, Junior, when I heard this squeaking sound. I stopped and started looking around then spotted a Burrowing Owl sitting in a Mesquite Bush. Every time the Burrowing Owl would squeak he (or she) would rise up then sit back down. These owls are a small species often with a body length of only around ten inches but have long legs presumably to help protect them from larger birds of prey.

Burrowing owl nests are basically holes in the ground. Often they build their burrows next to construction sites or other populated areas. They hatch their young around early or middle spring. I have rode up on Burrowing Owl nests before to have an owl fly off from the ground and land in a bush twenty yards away or so to get my attention on them and not the nest they left.

These little guys are about the neatest things you can watch. Burrowing owls are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

As I turned toward this owl and carefully walked up to him, he hopped to the ground. There was dark, turned up ground near his feet which I suspected was the burrow. I did not get any closer as I didn’t want to spook him, but I was able to shoot this short video on me and Junior’s encounter with this Burrowing Owl. Sorry for the poor quality, but I couldn’t even see the dog gone camera screen due to the Sun.