Bird Board
RFI: Burrowing Owl
Posted by Sean Sime
over 7 years ago
8 Comments
I searched the section on this site on where to find south florida specialties and it doesn't mention Florida Atlantic University as a location for Burrowing Owl though Ebird shows many records. Is this site accessible to the public? Just too far north to be listed here? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
I've seen those eBird records, but have never visited the site myself. If someone can confirm that the owls are in publicly accessible locations on campus and can be reliably seen, I would be happy to add this site to the Specialties page.
Brian Rapoza
Tropical Audubon Society
By the way, Sean, thanks for reading the Specialties page!
Brian Rapoza
Tropical Audubon Society
Yes, reliable. The area with their burrows is roped off so you cant get too close but they are always there.
Thanks, Kenny! I've updated the Specialties page with this information.
Brian Rapoza
Tropical Audubon Society
The school pays them to be there, else they'd have to change their athletic teams' mascot--the teams are referred to as The Owls. Ironically, some years ago, as i recall, the owls took up residence in conspicuous places on some of the athletic fields, thus rendering the fields unplayable.
There were 8 owls there this morning between 11:30-11:45. One thing that isn't entirely clear from my Ebird sleuthing is the birds are in a readily accessible field and though they may be present in the fenced in University Ecological Site where many Ebird pins are located, observers do not need to hike into that habitat.
The field where I observed the birds today is just north of the FAU stadium in between Palm Beach Ave and FAU Blvd.
If you go in the schools back entrance off of 20th you will find them in the field directly behind the parking garage facing the street (N University Drive, I believe). Like Kenny mentioned, you can find it easily as they are roped off.
Piggy-backing off this post, we'll be in the area from Jan 15th-18th and wondering if we can get more details about where we can see the owls. It looks like the have been seen, as posted on eBird, on New Year's Day. Can one park in Parking Lot #5 off of Palm Beach Avenue and be relatively close to the birds?
Thanks so much!
Leave a Comment