Ted astutely noted that humans must:
"Stay by the road; you're not allowed to enter the open space on the north side of Lookout Road. It is okay to poke around the open space on the south side of Lookout Road" Yes, please stay on the road. Last year, shortly after similar information was posted to CObirds, an individual with a large camera violated this closure. Because of this behavior, I have decided to just keep my mouth shut about Burrowing Owls on City Open Spaces. We currently have 7 pairs of Burrowing Owls on City Open Space. There are 3 pairs in the grassland north of Lookout, one of which has been there since early April. The birds Ted and Lonny saw have a nest close to where they saw them, but not visible from the road. They were lucky to see a foraging adult who is likely busy gathering food for nestlings. Seven pairs is a tremendous increase from past years, but it doesn't mean squat until they pump out some babies. Last year, that pair on Lookout produced 0 young, compared to the previous year's 9. One of this year's pairs has gone MIA after an unknown person(s) drove their vehicle through an unlocked gate and right through the prairie dog colony where the owls were setting up shop. That pair produced 7 young at that site in 2008. As we can see, these sensitive birds are not fans of being disturbed. Here in central Boulder County, Burrowing Owls are on the periphery of their breeding range. We are fortunate to have any at all on our Open Spaces, land that has been intentionally set aside for the purpose of preserving native wildlife. In general, I am inclined to share information in the hopes that more information will equate to a better and more satisfying understanding of our wildlife. It's wonderful when people can go out and enjoy a charismatic bird in their back yards. But there is example after example when information that is distributed to a large, uncensored, group of people leads to blatant violations of wildlife viewing ethics, not to mention posted wildlife closures. When these violations have a potentially negative effect on the fitness of the wildlife being viewed, we have a major problem. We need to give them the best possible chance to produce as many young as they can. Thanks for understanding the Boulder Co. Burrowing Owl's plight and respecting wildlife closures, Christian Nunes City of Boulder OSMP Wildlife Monitoring Technician [email protected] [email protected] _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple calendars with Hotmail. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?tile=multicalendar&ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_5 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
