Wild at Heart: Burrowing Owls Thriving in Their New Home

Post and Photos by Jane Hunter, Cohort 8

Early each day in mid-March, Jean Boris, Arizona Master Naturalist, Pima County Chapter and volunteer coordinator, checks the schedule to see who will be feeding the owls that day. She also touches base with Greg Clark, Wild At Heart’s Burrowing Owl Habitat Coordinator, to discuss any issues or concerns that need to be addressed. She contemplates taking the day off, but instead straps on her boots, packs up her car and heads to the Martin Farm in Marana to check on the colony of burrowing owls that have been relocated to the farm. Like so many other dedicated volunteers, the owls, although primarily adults, are her “babies” and she is willing to do anything to keep them safe and healthy.

Burrowing owls are the only known species of owl to live and raise their young underground in burrows abandoned by squirrels, kangaroo rats, coyotes, foxes, skunks, and badgers. The new home for these owls that were displaced by development in the Phoenix area, is a field of 25 tents that were built by a large crew of volunteers, many of them AZ Master Naturalists, masterfully managed by Greg Clark who is eminently qualified to lead this complex and sometimes challenging project.Greg’s qualifications are too numerous to describe here, but you can learn more about Greg and the project at: Wild at Heart Burrowing Owl Relocation Project.

The support of Jean and nine other Pima Master Naturalists has been instrumental to the success of this project. Next year, when the invitation to support the project is posted, “run, don’t walk”, to sign up. It will be a tremendous experience that you will never forget.