Watch for Color-Banded Burrowing Owls

Burrowing Owls at the Port Kells site, showing off their color bands

In January, I visited the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of British Columbia's Port Kells breeding program site. The BOCS captive breeding program aims to reestablish a self-sustaining Burrowing Owl population within the interior of BC. All birds within the program are banded, and they are now experimenting with GPS backpacks, to try to determine their migration routes and/or dispersal.  So far, BC birds have been recorded in Oregon and California, as far south as San Diego. If you spot a Burrowing Owl with green-over-black color bands on its right leg, you're looking at a BC bird!, and I'm sure they'd love to hear about it (and if you luck out, and can actually read the color bands, even better).  The BOCS can be reached here, and if you spotted it in/near Nevada, we'd love to hear about it too!

-- Jen