Hey look! A burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia) was spotted in fine fettle on the Stiles Farm Foundation yesterday, visiting the eastern edge of the species’ wintering range. This individual flew out of some track-and-field pole vault padding flipped over and left behind by a past tornado, which inadvertently provided artificial tunnels under the crosshatched layers of foam. These owls prefer to inhabit open grasslands and prairies and can usually be seen on the ground standing on their long legs or perched on low fence posts and similar structures. They are generalist predators of both invertebrates and small vertebrates, with prey ranging from grasshoppers, beetles, and dragonflies to lizards, snakes, frogs, small birds, rodents, and young rabbits.
While burrowing owls are not considered a threatened species across their range, their numbers have been dwindling in recent decades due to habitat loss from agricultural and urban development as well as the consequent hazards of pesticides, vehicle collisions, and predation by domesticated cats and dogs. The good news is that these birds do not require extensive swathes of grassland to subsist and can actually thrive within relatively small patches of suitable habitat, such as those developed through small-acreage native grassland restoration programs. We participate in both state and federal restoration programs here on the farm because these efforts can provide critical habitat for important prairie species, such as the burrowing owl, without compromising the long-term viability of agricultural operations that rely on cattle and crop production.
