When I headed out to Antelope Island this afternoon, I honestly wasn’t thinking of burrowing owls as I just had one thing and one thing only on my mind, sunsets.
Anytime there is a dash of clouds over the Great Salt Lake in the late afternoon, like there was today, in fact, I turn down my bird-ohmmeter, grab my camera gear, and head out to try and capture one of the spectacular sunsets over the lake.
But it wasn’t the sunset image I came home with (tacked on the very end of this post by the way) that made my day, it was the two burrowing owls standing guard over their respective burrows that put a smile on my face as I was traversing the island roads waiting for sundown.
Can you believe it, it is the first day of March and the burrowing owls are now officially back on Antelope Island for another breeding season.
It just might be another example, one of many actually for this year, of how this dry winter and warmer than normal weather we are currently having (it was almost 60 today) is quite possibly affecting bird migration.
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Normally, I don’t see burrowing owls until early April, even later the further north I go, like the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, for example, in search of these quirky little birds.
Up in Box Elder County near the Golden Spike Historical Park, I actually don’t expect to see burrowing owls until almost May, if truth be told, so a first-of-March burrowing owl sighting anywhere in northern Utah is indeed quite early in my book.
Ok, I know I only saw two burrowing owls today, each by a different nest location, but that was two more than what I expected to see so early in the year.
Burrowing owls come to Antelope Island to breed, utilizing a healthy offering of underground nesting sites built and installed by the state park to help give the small owls a permanent place to nest each year on the island.
Antelope Island has about 24 of these artificial nesting sites for burrowing owls, most locations of which I actually do know so finding the owls isn’t too hard when they have migrated back to the island.
I won’t be giving out exact nest locations, however, as that is somewhat sensitive information, but I will say several of the owl burrows are fairly close to the road where the owls are in good view.
Please, if you do find a burrowing owl nest, regardless if it is on Antelope Island or anywhere else for that matter, never, ever approach it for any reason, doing so could quite possibly cause the owls to abandon the nest altogether.
HawkWatch International monitors these burrowing owl nest sites on Antelope Island each summer to record nesting activity and success and also to band the young and any adults they can capture in the nest as well.
Burrowing owls are mostly a western United States bird except for a year-round resident population in Florida.
Some burrowing owls migrate as far north as southern Canada and breed in most of the western states, including right here in Utah.
Antelope Island has the closest burrowing owl population I personally know of with regards to the Wasatch Front.
Being so close, it makes an easy trip to the island to view and photograph the owls.
And when spring and summer get going, there are a ton of other bird watching and wildlife viewing opportunities on Antelope Island that would make for an entire day out on the state park.
Trust me on that, I have a yearly state park pass and it is very well used because of the bird watching opportunities on both Antelope Island and the causeway through much of the year.
If you are interested in heading out to view the burrowing owls on Antelope Island, keep in mind it is a state park, and the daily entrance fee as of this writing is $15 per vehicle, but well worth it for a day away from the asphalt jungle while out watching birds in my opinion.
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We also have a small but growing YouTube channel we occasionally post updates about the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as well as short nature clips when we can capture them with our camera.
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Now with regards to the sunset I mentioned earlier, this is what I came home with.
It’s not the best sunset I have ever taken, not by a long shot, but it’s not the worst either.
I am a bit upset at myself, however, for not taking the 10-minute walk to the lakeshore to get a full reflection image.
But all in all, the burrowing owls made my day so I can’t be too upset with a less than perfect sunset picture, right?
