Subject: [Tweeters] Banded Sequim Burrowing Owl identified
Date: Dec 13 19:53:45 2012
From: Bob & Barb Boekelheide - bboek at olympus.net


After missing for three days, the Burrowing Owl near Sequim was back at its site today, allowing better photos of its bands by Dow Lambert. Thanks to Dow's photos, this individual has been identified by Dawn Brodie of the "Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC" as a "wildborn" owl that fledged from an artificial burrow in 2011 at Lac du Bois, just north of Kamloops, BC.

It is a likely female, it came from a clutch of 8 chicks, and it was the heaviest chick of the clutch at fledging. Its parents were a returning female and a newly released captive-bred male, part of their project to restore BUOW as a nesting species in BC. Dawn says the project's nest boxes produced 257 fledgling owls in 2011 and 167 in 2012. As recently as the early 1990s BUOWs were considered extirpated in BC.

We'll keep an eye on the little owl and see if it remains for the winter. Maybe there are more out there in coastal WA, so keep looking. Without Glen Goschen's awareness during his beach walk, we would likely have never found this bird.

Bob Boekelheide
Sequim