Over the last 9 years I have found myself many a time contemplating aberrant results.  If ever there was (or is) an inevitable lesson that one encounters in biology it is without a doubt a need to be at one with the occasional unexplainable event.  I can tell you firsthand this is indeed an inherent function of  microbiology, cell biology, molecular biology, and wildlife biology.  Even before I left the confines of high school I was introduced to this notion through the cinematic spectacle  Jurassic Park…you know the story.  Life finds a way.

And that is exactly what I thought was taking place at the Kiper Homes’ Blue Ridge development in Antioch.  Burrowing owls lose habitat, burrowing owls find habitat, burrowing owls evicted, and burrowing owls return.  As I posted on January 19th, Monk & Associates evicted the last pair of owls from their nesting burrow on the 13th.  By the time I made the news public it had been 6 days since I had seen any owls on the property.  I was resigned to the fact that the resident owls I had protected for over a year had become the latest victims in the struggle of man versus nature.  And to quote Jurassic Park, “The lack of humility before nature that’s being displayed here, uh… staggers me.”

Yet my wife and I continued to monitor the progress of the eviction even though the owls had gone and the rain fell incessantly.  Perhaps curiosity, maybe plain disdain, or more likely it was just a habit that kept us coming back.  And over a 9 day period human and owl activity could not be measured.   Life does find a way, and that happened on day 10.  Two individuals and the last evicted pair had made their presence known by excavating their sealed burrow entrances. Life had returned to the site despite the evictions and on the heels of an impending breeding season.  As the beginning of the week faded, I began to hold hope that the 4 owls might cross safely into courtship and thus start a chain of events for their ultimate protection.  But then the sun appeared on the horizon and Wednesday was born. 

Monk & Associates were seen canvassing the area, marking doomed burrows with red flags, and were once again uprooting owls. As Wednesday night turned to Thursday morning, the owls that had instilled hope were eviction victims for the second time. DAMN.

Life does not conform to the conveniences of humankind.  And with that in mind I clearly have some lingering questions.  Firstly, what assurances do we have and what precautions were taken by the evicting biologists to ensure the pair had not laid eggs?  Burrowing owls do not adhere to our calendar nor to a paperwork definition of a breeding season.

Secondly, why is the inadequate eviction plan not being followed as stated?  It is only a fragment of the recommended process yet portions of it still go unfulfilled.  Case in point, many evicted burrows are not backfilled or hand collapsed but simply plugged with a shovel full of dirt.  This leads to the return of owls and forces multiple evictions to be implemented.  Additionally, why are available burrows being closed with dirt as opposed to the use of one-way doors?  When 4 out of 5 burrows in a particular section are sealed with soil as opposed to being fitted with one-way doors it is quite disconcerting.

"The Giant Destroyer" gas bomb

Thirdly, can someone explain the presence of two used ground squirrel gas bombs at the entrance of  an owl-occupied burrow?  The following photo was provided to JournOwl.com on the condition that posting would be done with complete anonymity.  I have a few ideas that range from an innocuous biological event that occurred post-squirrel fumigation to one that is characterized by ineptitude. But I’ll leave it at that.

So as I sit here reflecting on the situation I find it necessary to update the timeline once again; Burrowing owls lose habitat, burrowing owls find habitat, burrowing owls evicted, burrowing owls return, and burrowing owls evicted.  Life does find a way, but man also finds a way to ensure development goes unimpeded.   I was reminded of a paraphrased quote from the Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary that was attributed to John Muir and highly applicable,

“The enemies of wilderness are invincible  and they are everywhere…but the fight must go on.”

Although true, they don’t win every time and to that I must add I’m quite tenacious.  But the leaders ordained to spearhead conservation and protect California’s wildlife continue to be mysteriously quiet on the issue.  A word of advice to CDFG management, silence is not always the best or most appropriate policy…especially when your employers, The People of California, are beckoning.

Tags: Antioch Burrowing Owls, Blue Ridge Development, burrowing owls, Kiper Homes, squirrel fumigation

This entry was posted by Scott on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Commentary, Human Threats, Migratory Birds, Owls, Raptors, Urban sprawl, Wildlife management, birds, conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.