Push Came to Shove: Burrowing Owl Lost

You’ll know them by their chunky little eight-inch bodies, spindly legs, round eyes and the ingratiating way they sit outside their burrows and bob up and down, as if curtsying to all who pass by.

But you’ll have trouble finding them in Orange County these days because, say biologists, burrowing owls offer a textbook example of what can befall wildlife when people start crowding in.

“They happen to be one creature that is in direct competition with developers,” said Pete Bloom of Orange, who for many years banded birds of prey for state and federal agencies and now works on the Audubon Society’s condor rescue program.

“Burrowing owls, like developers, prefer flat, open land,” he said. “Guess who wins out.”

Bloom predicted more than 10 years ago that of all the raptors--birds of prey such as hawks, eagles and owls--the burrowing owls would be the first to disappear entirely from Southern California.

His prediction appears to be proving true.

“Just a few years ago, when we talked about burrowing owls in Orange County, we talked about thousands of pairs,” said Charles T. Collins, biology professor at Cal State Long Beach. “Now we talk about hundreds, and add ‘maybe.’ ”

They’ll be missed, he said, for their “comical display of bouncing and bobbing,” but even more for their “very efficient” preying on small rodents and large insects, which was a boon to farmers during the county’s heavy agriculture days.

Collins said that the birds are not on state or federal endangered species lists but that they are getting close.

“They are on the Audubon Society’s ‘blue list,’ a sort of early warning on species showing non-cyclical declines (declines that show no indication of recovering),” he said.

They also are on the state Department of Fish and Game’s “priority list of special concern,” said Earl Lauppe, a department biologist.

Lauppe said a Fish and Game study shows that the burrowing owl population began dropping off in the 1940s from Santa Barbara to San Diego, though one of the main reasons had nothing to do directly with owls. It appeared that people were killing off ground squirrels, which dig the holes the owls use for homes.

“The connection is that burrowing owls really don’t do much burrowing in spite of their name,” he said. “Mostly, they move into ground squirrel holes, and with the disappearance of the squirrels, the owls were deprived of places to live. It’s a good illustration of the interworkings of the ecology and how it can be upset.”

‘Just Paved Over’

Added to that, widespread construction of freeways, shopping malls and housing projects began in Orange County, “and the owls were just paved over,” Bloom said.

He recalled, for example, that one of the densest owl populations was in the vicinity of Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue in the Costa Mesa-Santa Ana area--flat land suited to their life style. Now a freeway cuts through there, the South Coast Plaza buildings and parking lots blanket many acres, along with the newer Town Center and the South Coast Repertory Theatre and Performing Arts Center.

Apparently, some of the owls displaced have settled a mile or so to the east, where San Diego Creek meanders through the rapidly developing Irvine industrial community. Bicyclists and hikers on the trails there often are greeted by the nodding and bowing creatures.

A few years ago, when the Smith Tool Co. was expanding its operation in Irvine, two pairs of burrowing owls made their homes in a pile of sand that was supposed to be used in cement work.

Smith officials declared the sandpile off-limits to humans until four baby owls had been hatched; then they hired a biologist to construct artificial burrows nearby. Those burrows were used for several seasons until the birds moved away.

Navy Base Plans Study

Pat Jones, environmental coordinator at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, said that there have been several pairs of burrowing owls there and that a study is planned soon to determine their population and their impact, if any, on nesting sites of California least terns, an endangered species of shore bird.

There is some hope for the little owls. Though they seem to prefer one nesting area, they are capable of migrating long distances to more suitable habitats.

“For many years, people didn’t think they flew very much,” said Cal State Long Beach’s Collins. “That was because they were mostly observed during the daytime, when they just sit around beside their burrows.

“Actually, they do most of their hunting at night, and in addition, we’ve captured and banded some of them, and two of the banded owls turned up in Baja California, one way down near Ensenada.

“We know they didn’t walk down there.”