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Burrowing owl

The elusive burrowing owl. We’ve waited years to spot one. When we got this one, we spent twenty minutes watching and taking pictures of him. When we finally drove on, we found another standing on a post within half a mile, then another, then another. Altogether, we saw five of them standing on posts. Actually, they don’t live on fence posts, they live in prairie dog burrows. Later, we did see some on the ground in and next to burrows.

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:steve@taylorroth.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 11:07 AM
To: spt@thetaylorcompany.net
Subject: burrowing owl

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Aspen

So here we are, ensconced in Basalt. A new job in Aspen, twenty miles up the valley. This is the only campground along the whole Roaring Fork Valley, so we always stay here for Aspen work. We got a better spot than we usually do. Most of the sites are back-to-back utilities. It’s a tight park. This time we got a back-in spot along the back fence. Roomier. Much better. We don’t usually see cedar waxwings, but we get to see them every day here this trip. Nice looking bird. Next week…. Our friends at the Physics Center in Aspen. We’ve been doing that job for about twenty years.
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Time flies

We’re off to Aspen. While we were at St Vrain, we did a half-day birding trip to Pawnee National Grasslands seventy miles northeast. Bill will remember the grasslands, we took a hike there to Pawnee Buttes. Judy and I went there for one bird, the chestnut collared longspur. We put four birds on the target list, just in case: the chestnut collared longspur, McCown’s longspur, mountain plover, and burrowing owl. We didn’t get the chestnut collared longspur. We did get two out of the four; two new life birds for us, the McCown’s longspur and burrowing owl. Eight burrowing owls altogether, and flocks of McCown’s longspur. Had a close encounter with a mountain plover. Made eye contact. Naked eye, no binoculars, but there in the grass, maybe fifty yards away, a plover head looking right at me. As I raised the binoculars, I could see his head lowering. By the time the binocs were up, there was no sign of him. I kept locked on that exact spot and walked right to it, but there was still no sign of him. Nothing moved, he just disappeared in the grass. Didn’t get a good enough look to count him. No chestnut collared longspur, but two new birds…. And a good reason to go back.