Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/258790
26 W e s t W o r l d >> s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 LOTH), and is unlikely to survive. What happened to the others? Are they out and about? (She takes the little one back to the centre, wrapped to keep it warm, but it doesn't live long.) Now it's the beginning of July, just after Canada Day and again a group of volun- teers is out for perhaps the most important event of the burrowing owl program: counting and banding the born-in-the- Okanagan birds. This must be done as soon as they are big enough (at four weeks of age) but before they can fly (usually about two weeks later). It is very hot and dry, typical Okanagan summer weather, with cherries ripe in the orchards and mariposa lilies in bloom amid the sagebrush. Rattlesnake season. Amazingly, burrowing owls have somehow learned to mimic the snake's rat- tle when a predator (or human) comes near the nest. When we reach the nesting site, where four breeding pairs were released in April, the birds are sitting tight underground during the day's heat and can be nudged gently to within easy hand's reach. Meads fishes for the owls with her hands, bringing them out one at a time. The first nest has four young birds, now almost as big as their parents. Each is checked over – most have a few fleas – then wrapped up in a cloth ("like a burrito," says Meads). Meads hangs each tiny bundle on a fisherman's scale; volunteers record their weight and the numbers on metal identification bands that are then carefully attached to the birds' legs before the owls are returned underground. And we all troop across the hot hillside to the next nests – which prove to be disappointing. Of all the nests in this site, one contains four birds banded earlier; two of them have only one grown hatchling each and the last nest is empty. "Not nearly as good as last year," says Meads. "Could be the long spell of cold, wet spring weather, or predators. Food wasn't a problem – the birds were fed regularly. But when a wild population declines to almost zero, it is very difficult to bring it back. I guess it just takes time." This year marks the fifth year of the burrowing owl relocation program in the South Okanagan and hopes are high as the cycle starts again. In general, it has been an accelerating success. In Year 1, four pairs were placed and the only nest produced six young. In Year 2, four pairs of birds in three nests had 18 young, and in Year 3, eight pairs of birds placed in two separate sites had six nests and 30 young. But in 2013, seven pairs of birds and lots of eggs and hatchlings produced only 17 birds from five nests big enough to band. A momen- tary blip on the screen of recovery? Or have changing weather patterns had a dire effect? Meads shakes her head. No one knows. Still, any new burrowing owls out there are better than none. While the relocation program has suf- fered some disappointments, the owl breed- ing program in B.C. has been wildly successful. In 2013, the Okanagan facility alone produced 20 owls; the total for all three facilities topped 120. Started back in 1992, the program has so far bred 1,275 owls, all successfully reared and released into the wild, to mate, rear young, migrate south for the winter and hopefully return to populate new colonies in the B.C. grasslands. ℹ Volunteers and funds are always needed by the non-profit Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of B.C. For more information, visit burrowingowlbc.org p22-26_Burrowing Owl.indd 26 14-01-29 10:32 AM