Burrowing Owl

John and I took an interesting foray onto Marco Island (Florida) recently on a search for the little burrowing owls. Success! We found this male guarding his burrow, and judging from his fierce hissing when we approached, we are pretty sure his mate was down inside sitting on her eggs.

I confess, we had a leader who showed us where the burrows were ... I had tried (and failed) on earlier tries to find these little fellows. They are about 8" tall and dig their nest holes in sandy soil in grasssy fields ... which sometimes means right in someone's front yard.

Our guide took us to see three or four sites, each with a nesting pair.