It Got Ugly Photographing Burrowing Owls
This Saturday I met up with fellow photographer and Navy veteran Johnny Day in Cape Coral. We decided to head there in the hope of photographing Burrowing Owl owlets. We both knew it was early in the season, but I had heard from a Cape Coral resident that the owlets were starting to emerge from their burrows. That may be true in some places, but we had no luck finding any owlets.
We started at the Cape Coral library. Like the last few years, the burrows on library property looked deserted. There were a few active burrows in the surrounding neighborhood though, including a few just across the street from the library. We chose to forego these burrows and went to the Pelican Baseball Complex. Every year the burrows at the baseball fields are productive.
Things started well enough. We decided to walk the perimeter of the ballfields and took some preliminary shots of some owls standing like solitary sentinels at their burrow’s entrance. Further down we spotted an owl perched in a tree near its burrow. This was my second time seeing a Burrowing Owl in a tree and it was really exciting.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/1000 sec, ISO 800.
Most of the burrows had a single adult standing on or near the burrow mound. More than likely the other adult is inside the burrow tending to eggs or chicks. Here is an adult at one burrow, and a few seconds later he took off and grabbed a dragonfly that got too close.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 1000.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/1250 sec, ISO 360.
We also spotted non-native Monk Parakeets. They were making a racket as usual and were busy flying around, grabbing nesting material for their nests in the light poles. A few of the parakeets flew into a flower-filled tree on private property. I thought that a parakeet surrounded by flowers would make a nice image, so we waited and found the parakeets were actually eating the flowers. Even better!
Monk Parakeet. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S lens at f/6.3, 1/2000 sec, ISO 1400.
Johnny and I completed our walk around the ball fields and we decided to go around once again. We still wanted to find owlets and we hoped that they might start venturing out as dusk approached. I decided to change lenses, taking off the 800mm f/6.3 lens for the 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens. That turned out to be a really good move.
We headed out on the same walk and almost immediately things went sideways.
We started by visiting a few burrows we previously walked by. Only, this time we noticed an owl acting strangely outside of its burrow. Unlike the other owls, he was away from the burrow’s entrance and was walking aimlessly without much motor coordination. He was bobbing his head in a jerky movement, and had a deadpan expression with wide open eyes. He was even falling down.
We could only speculate what was wrong with the bird but it definitely looked neurological and not a physical injury. We came to the conclusion that either the owl was poisoned by eating a mouse or rat that got into rodenticide, or the owl had avian influenza. There was no way for us to know.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 800.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 800.
Then things got worse.
Another Burrowing Owl standing watch at a burrow about 15 feet away saw this sick bird, puffed up, raced towards it, and attacked it. I had never seen anything like it! The sick bird seemed completely bewildered and unaware of what was happening.
Burrowing Owl. This Burrowing Owl saw the sick owl and, likely acting to protect its own burrow, raced across the field to attack the sick owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 800.
Burrowing Owls. The owl to the left is the sick owl and the bird on the right is attacking it. Note that the sick bird is banded. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 720.
After the owl attacked the sick owl, it returned to its burrow. The sick owl stayed where it was, still bobbing its head and looking completely lost. But the attacker wasn’t done. It then flew to the sick owl, hitting it from behind knocking it over. It did these fly-by attacks over and over and over again.
Burrowing Owl. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 640.
Burrowing Owl. Sick owl on the left. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 640.
Burrowing Owl. Sick owl on the left. Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR lens at 600mm, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec, ISO 720.
By this point a few other photographers had seen what was going on and came over. We all felt completely hopeless and watched with sadness. I decided it was time to call for help, so I walked back to my camper van to get my phone (I had left it in the van). I looked up the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife and called their number. It was Saturday at about 6 pm and the phone went to a recorded message. The message said to call C.R.O.W. if you have a sick or injured owl. I called their number and it also went to a recorded message, with instructions to bring the sick or injured owl to a drop-off location. Johnny and I talked it over and neither of us felt equipped to be handling this owl, especially if it had avian influenza. Without any other options, we made the difficult decision to leave the bird alone.
Eventually the sick owl made its way to a burrow and the attacks stopped. I took a video of it at this point just to document its erratic movements.
While most of the time watching wildlife is interesting and rewarding, there are those times that are tough to watch. This happened to be one of those times. I will be back to Cape Coral soon, though. I do want to get back and photograph those owlets. Maybe in two or three weeks.
I left Cape Coral Sunday morning and headed to Fort De Soto Park. There I saw some very interesting birds which I look forward to sharing in my next post.
Until then, happy birding!
