Burrowing Owls

Burrowing Owls!? Most of us are used to seeing owls...birds...in trees, but this species is a bit of an "odd duck" in that it prefers to live in the ground. I always get a chuckle out of folks who look up when I try to point these little fellows out to them!

You know that feeling you get when your walking along in the 104 degree heat of a late afternoon sun in the Nevada desert? No, not that heat stroke feeling. But the feeling you are being watched? Well in this case it was the latter, I was being watched, by a Burrowing Owl. This owl had laid down on the hardened mud in the hopes I would walk on by but something gave the ground-dwelling bird away; that something was his eyes. Those huge round yellow eyes!

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You know that feeling you get when your walking along in the 104 degree heat of a late afternoon sun in the Nevada desert? No, not that heat stroke feeling. But the feeling you are being watched? Well in this case it was the latter, I was being watched, by a Burrowing Owl. This owl had laid down on the hardened mud in the hopes I would walk on by but something gave the ground-dwelling bird away; that something was his eyes. Those huge round yellow eyes!

Owls Burrowing Owl Bird Athene cunicularia Floyd Lamb State Park Las Vegas Nevada Tule Springs Mojave Desert Clark County August Tecolote Llanero Chevêche des terriers

Tracey Harmon Photography

Burrowing Owls