Burrowing Owl Habitat
American badgers and western burrowing owls are crucial, specially designated California native species that share the grassland ecosystems, where badgers often create abandoned (engineer) burrows that provide vital nesting and winter shelter for the owls. Both are declining in California due to habitat loss.
Since we seldom see a badger after many years of hanging properties within their habitat we were so excited to see some burrowing owls poking around an old warren badger site obviously looking for habitat. Seeing them on the landscape was so exciting that we immediately jumped into action to build some habitat for them.
We initially cast tunnel sections and chamber sections out of concrete. To then be placed in tunnels that we dug on the site of their new habitat.
It was a super fun project and our crew at SMI was so happy to do it for these cute little owls.
After a couple of days of construction, cleaning up, and decorating, we had our first sitings of the owls checking out their new habitat.
Game cameras have since been installed and we have been getting lots of great shots. It doesn’t look like nesting will happen this year but we are very hopeful for next season. We will keep you updated if we have babies!
Another complex has been pre cast and we are working on a new location to try to bring more owls in next season.