One-Eyed Jack

I can’t stand being sick, but when I have a stuffed up nose I’m grateful I have an extra nostril to breathe through. If they’re both plugged up I can still breath through my mouth. It’s good to have a back up system when things don’t work. Nature has provided us with a pair of lungs, ears, arms, legs, etc. I wish I had a second brain for the times when the one I have fails me.

Which leads me to One-Eyed Jack, the visually impaired Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) who lives in a big open field in Cape Coral, Florida. If I had a second brain I might be able to tell you what is wrong with his eye, but I don’t, so I can’t. As sympathetic as I am to the bird’s plight I can’t help but find amusement in the inappropriateness of a Cycloptic owl from the genus Athne. Owls of course are the mascot of the Greek goddess Athene (or Athena) who helped conquer the famous Cyclops with a poke in the eye, what was, at the time, an ingenious strategy. I think that was in Homer’s Odyssey. I’m not positive. Look it up on Wikipedia. Again this is where two brains would come in handy.

Regardless of mythological misinformation, the one-eyed wonder pictured here and photographed by wildlife photographer Milla Voellinger, should survive just fine. Although binocular vision would certainly come in handy as the pint-sized, diurnal raptor hunts down lizards, insects and other prey, it’s a handicap that can easily be overcome.

Try your hand at monoscopic vision. With one eye covered, run as fast as you can to the kitchen, grab your favorite snack or beverage from the fridge and return to this riveting piece of journalism. It would have helped to have had both eyes right? But you did it.

Living in the wild, the owl has concerns beyond the family cat, the banister and the step-stool you had to navigate around in this experiment. Burrowing Owls have to contend with outdoor cats, cars and other obstacles as the go about their day. Fortunately for this owl it has friends and family. One-eyed or two-eyed, they all watch out for each other.

Audubon Guides - Go Fighting Owls!

The Piper High School Bengals never had a chance. The Fighting Owls dug in at the 25-yard line and never gave any ground. Literally. A few weeks ago a pair of Burrowing Owls dug a hole in the middle of a football field, forcing the Piper High team to play out their season on the road.

As a species of special concern, the pint-sized bird benefits from the protection of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Birds on the field? No game today.

Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) are found throughout the western US and once inhabited the open prairies of central Florida. Cape Coral, a sprawling, nearly tree-less city on Florida’s southwest coast has the largest population of the ground-dwelling raptors. As development persists in the sunshine state, more and more of the owls preferred habitat is lost which makes the rare sighting at the high school in Sunrise, FL all the more interesting.

Burrows are occupied year-round with nesting occurring from February through July. These birds were firmly entrenched on the green gridiron and clearly had plans to stay.

In the western US the birds may reuse gopher holes while in Florida they recycle old Gopher Tortoise holes. In this case they did the digging themselves.

The owls can be tolerant of some human interaction. While my momentary presence was simply annoying, football players and cheering fans would clearly be apocalyptic. So on a quiet Monday morning I was escorted on the field by Linda, a Piper guidance director. Here we found the mouth of the burrow and a mound of dirt bisected perfectly by the white hash mark of the 25-yard line. A solitary owl peered out – its eyes matching the yellow CAUTION tape that encircled its new den.

The burrow would last only a few more days. The students created a starter burrow in a more appropriate place nearby and with the approval from wildlife officials the athletic department filled in the hole. With luck the owls will take the hint and Piper High School will have a pair of new mascots. Go Fighting Owls!

More good stuff at Audubon Guides - http://audubonguides.wordpress.com

The Feathered Underground

If you're driving through the city of Cape Coral for the first time, there are two questions that might peck away at the back of your brain. Why are there fields filled with PVC pipes and perches and why am I driving through Cape Coral.

The town is the 2nd largest in area in the state at 115 square miles and has nearly 32 trees. The City was founded in 1965 on the western side of the Caloosahatchee River and across from Fort Myers. It has no history worth mentioning, or at least none that I could find on Wikipedia in the last 5 minutes, but essentially the relatively barren landscape was scraped, hundreds of miles of channels were created (many leading to nowhere) and the people began to flock to the Mecca of flat land. Germans predominately settled the town as property was sold cheaply in Europe during the 70's and the proximity to the ocean and level terrain must have undoubtedly reminded them of their homeland.

It's one of the fastest growing cities in the country and for the life of me I have no idea why. Which brings me back to my questions. Why PVC and perches? Of all of the inhabitants of the city, the most notable and beloved are the Burrowing Owls. The owls (Athene cunicularia) are found in Florida and throughout the western US and Canada.

map from Shaw Creek Bird Supply

They use the burrows of other animals out west, but here in Florida they do the excavating themselves. They are a "Species of Special Concern" here which is the scientific equivalent of a "whatever". But here in Cape Coral, the community embraces them. They truly adore them and sometimes they run them over with their cars. It happens. One nest I checked on was caved in with tire marks directly over the top of it.

I headed out to check out how many I could find and was lucky enough to find 14 in one evening. They're small, long-legged and have bright yellow eyes that look like creamed corn. Since they prefer open grasslands, the problem is quite obvious. Fastest growing city in Florida....birds that like open land. So a drive around town is an interesting experience as many of the underground burrows are marked with PVC pipes and perches are placed in the center so the birds have a place to lookout.

The owls are relatively comfortable living around humans, but they get testy from time to time if you approach too close and will bob their heads up and down, signaling that they are peeved. They also mimic the sound of a rattlesnake to deter predators.

In some places they have exacted revenge for the lands they have lost. I love this spot. The owls have burrowed into the soft sands of a horseshoe pit. The town was nice enough to rope it off. No doubt some knucklehead would have used the PVC perch to score a ringer.

They get most agitated in March and April when nesting season occurs. Although they lay anywhere from 8-12 eggs, usually only 4-5 leave the nest.

Although they are the darlings of the city, it's not all unicorns and rainbows for the owls. While birds, nests and eggs are protected, land continues to sell at a fast pace and each year we lose more and more open space for North America's only burrowing owl. My sister, Mandy, has suggested I offer action steps for every environmental crisis I bring up.

Action Step: Don't buy empty lots in Cape Coral!