Over the past 30 years, volunteers have informally monitored the status of burrowing owls across Boulder County. According to the Monthly Wildlife Inventories maintained by BCAS, sightings were fairly consistent throughout the 1980’s but over the past 20 years sightings have declined quite dramatically. It was starting to appear the burrowing owl had all but disappeared from Boulder County. Then last summer seven different burrowing owl nest sites were found through the efforts of staff from Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks and Boulder County Parks and Open Space.

Have we been overlooking this unique small owl? Is it more prevalent than we have been assuming over the past several years? Is its breeding success rate sufficient to sustain its long-term survival in the county?

To answer these questions, this spring we will be initiating a county-wide project to locate burrowing owls and also determine their breeding success. The project will involve monitoring prairie dog colonies on Boulder County Parks and Open Space lands. We are hoping to recruit 40-50 volunteers to help with this project. Each volunteer will monitor 3-4 prairie dog colonies at least 5 times over the period from April 15 to July 31. The majority of the project will consist of roadside surveys but some of the sites will require minimal hiking to survey points.

A project orientation meeting will be held March 22 to acquaint volunteers with the project scope and protocol. The meeting will be held at the Boulder Library – Meadows Branch from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Meadows library is located behind the Safeway at Foothills Parkway and Baseline Road. If you are interested in helping with this project please contact Chris Abrahamson at cabrahamson@hotmail.com or at 303-565-9742.

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