Walnut Creek: Rara Avis

On my Wednesday hike the other week, I explored a new area. This led to an interesting discovery -- a northern burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) in its burrow. Now, how big a deal is this? From 1989 to 2000, only 17 burrowing owl sightings were recorded in Contra Costa County. Of those, only five could be reliably re-spotted. So this is not a common bird.

Nationally, burrowing owls are considered 'at risk' -- the technical term is "national bird of conservation concern." In Canada, they are endangered. In Mexico, they are threatened. This means there's no habitat protection for them and that these birds, which seek the same refuge year on year, are vulnerable to development and habitat destruction. And there's not way to stop the habitat loss because they are not yet endangered.

Burrowing owls, however, don't construct their own homes. They use the abandoned (forcibly or not) burrows left by ground squirrels for nests and shelter. This means that where ground squirrels are eradicated as pests, burrowing owls are also preventing from taking residence.

One cause for special concern is that burrowing owls like exactly the type of land developers like. In 2010, in Antioch, not far from Walnut Creek, a developer (whose name I will post if I can find out who it was) forcibly evicted 12 burrowing owl families from land prior to development. The process involved placing eviction doors over burrow entrances. This allowed the birds to leave, but not re-enter. This apparently happened during the breeding season leaving one to wonder if the owls, returning home and unable to re-enter their nests, had chicks left to starve.

So why should we protect these owls? Aside from humanity's duty to be good stewards to our planet, these owls benefit people a great deal. During the day they hunt insects. At night they hunt mammals, like mice. So everything they eat is a nuisance. That should be enough reason.

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In addition to the burrowing owl, though, the hike showed off even more animal species.
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A ground squirrel. These animals are very skittish. Getting close enough to obtain this photo with the Wondertube was exceedingly difficult.

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Great Egret. This bird is enormous, and much faster than it would appear to be.

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Anna's Hummingbird. About 1.5 million of these hummingbirds live in the wild -- worldwide. That's not actually very many. They survive on nectar and insects, catching the latter in mid flight.

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Black Phoebe. This is a juvenile, so it's still in its brown feathers.