Starter Burrows

Out of 171 species of owls worldwide, the burrowing owl is the only one that lives in burrows.  When Cape Coral was developed back in the 1960’s, the Rosen Brothers, developers from New York, brought in the largest collection of earth moving equipment that had ever been seen in Florida, and leveled 100 square miles of land.  Very little wildlife escaped the wrath of those machines, but for the Burrowing Owl, it made ideal habitat.  

Out west, the western species of the Burrowing Owl takes over abandoned prairie dog burrows, but here in Florida the owls dig their own burrows.  The soft sand makes this quite easy.  With the 100 square miles of soft sand, and very little vegetation, the owls moved in and made Cape Coral their home.  Over the years, they have dug about 2800 burrows in town. 

The Cape Coral city fathers are hell bent on seeing to it that the population of Cape Coral should grow to more than the predicted level of 400,000 people that the Rosen Brothers planned for.  When that happens, all the empty, sandy lots will be gone and along with it the Burrowing Owl’s habitat. 

The City of Cape Coral has realized its responsibility to save and protect this unique species of bird and together with Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, have come up with a plan to save the owls.  This simply involves the placing of “starter burrows” on private lots throughout the City. 

Once a home is built and the homeowner puts in grass, the owls cannot dig through this grass. Florida grass is awful stuff! It is long runners of thickly stemmed “grass” that has been developed to withstand the harsh Florida summers, and the winter resident attempts at keeping dormant grass green. Getting a shovel into this grass is even tough. 

The installation of starter burrows has been one of the answers to habitat destruction. By helping the owls get through this tough grass, they have adapted nicely to living on residential front lawns. To learn how to build a starter burrow, be sure and visit http://ccfriendsofwildlife.org/starterburrow.html