Burrowing Owls in Boulder County: A tiny owl’s battle for survival! - Sue Cass, January 2021
Channel: Boulder County Audubon Society
Date: 2021-01-29

Learn about the fascinating history of Burrowing Owls in Boulder County and the work done by the volunteers who monitor these charismatic owls.

In 1909, Junius Henderson, founder and first Curator of the University of Colorado Henderson Museum of Natural History, declared Burrowing Owl “our most abundant owl on the plains”. Boy, have things changed! By the 1990s, Burrowing Owl had nearly disappeared from Boulder County. In 2008, Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS), City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) and the Boulder County Audubon Society (BCAS), with support from the Boulder County Nature Association (BCNA), united in a single cause to locate and monitor every Burrowing Owl nest in the County. The fact that Burrowing Owl is a prairie dog commensal interfuses survival challenges for both species here on the burgeoning Front Range. This is a report on thirteen years of Burrowing Owl monitoring in Boulder County.

Sue Cass is the proud matriarch of a seven-generation Boulder family and a passionate life-long birder. Sue has contributed enormously to the local ecological community, for which the Boulder County Audubon Society awarded Sue its 2014 Environmental Conservation Award and in 2015 Sue received Boulder County Parks and Open Space Environmental Stewardship Award. Sue’s contributions include serving on the Board of Directors of Boulder County Nature Association, since 2001, currently as president; serving on the BCPOS Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee; coordinating the BCNA Winter Raptor Survey since 2001, and coordinator the volunteers for the last 10 years for the BCPOS Burrowing Owl Survey. Sue is also a Volunteer Naturalist for Boulder County Parks and Open Space since 2001 and provides advanced training in raptor ecology and field ID for new Volunteer Naturalists and raptor nest monitors in addition to field ID and instruction on interpretive public programming on the broader subject of the birds of Boulder County.

Sue presented this talk to Boulder County (CO) Audubon on January 26, 2021.