Pasha Donaldson, vice president of Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, does not know how well the city’s 3,500 burrowing owls are doing during Hurricane Ian.
But he knows one way residents can help the animals that survived the storm stay alive.
“Please don’t put your trash on top of” their holes, Donaldson said. That’s the “big deal for people who litter.”
The burrowing owl occupies not only its own dug burrows, but can make a home at the ends of a drainage culvert under paths, under a porch, or where a post used to be. Donaldson said the owls will be trapped in their homes for the days or weeks it takes for the debris piles created by Hurricane Ian to become deadly.
The Florida burrowing owl is listed as State Threatened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Donaldson and the other 300 members of the wildlife group have a very special cause for the owls that goes beyond a general concern for animal welfare: Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife has spent $450,000 to buy about four dozen residential plots and is almost always looking to buy. more.
Burrowing owls and gopher tortoises were discovered, or brought to, in one of the lots where, now, there is nothing to build on, creating an animal sanctuary in the whole part of the city.
Donaldson said the storm washed away several white PVC poles that volunteers had placed on the ground to indicate where a small shelter had been built, mostly on a residential lot purchased by the group on the left. build a house and then they let the owls go away.
The 300-member group has been meeting at the owl and tortoise-based sanctuary since 2002. The group focuses on burying owls and gopher tortoises because they both dig in the ground for protection and because most of the lots are convenient. digging. sandy spoil from the bottom of the bay when the city was created in the 1950s.
The group’s annual festival has become the stuff of legend, and next year’s is planned for February.
The 21st Annual Burrowing Owl Festival and Wildlife and Environmental Exposition is scheduled for February 23, 2023, at Rotary Park. The group is asking the public to donate items that can be auctioned off to raise money for the non-profit, and the form to do so can be found here.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by the VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate global change and impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, advancing education, and health promotion.
Sign up for WGCU’s monthly environmental newsletter, Green Flash, today.
Copyright 2022 WGCU. To find out more, visit WGCU.
