Cape Coral will be hosting the 17th Annual Southwest Florida Burrowing Owl Festival on Saturday February 23rd 2019 from 10am until 4pm. The festival will take place at Rotary Park Environmental Center in Cape Coral.

5515 Rose Garden Road

Cape Coral, FL 33914

 

Admission to this one of a kind southwest Florida tradition is free however, a donation of $5 for anyone over the age of 16 is strongly encouraged. All the proceeds will go directly to local  Cape Coral wildlife protection, preservation, and education. The Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife have put on the event for the past 16 years, the group is dedicated to enhancing and preserving the threatened species. The event takes place in Cape Coral because we are home to the largest known population of the burrowing owl, and because it is the official bird of the city of Cape Coral. The annual Burrowing Owl Festival is a great place to take your family and friends to learn more and appreciate this threatened species that calls Cape Coral its’ home just like us. At the festival many wildlife and environmental organizations set up educational exhibits showcasing the burrowing owl and other animal species located in Cape Coral. Guided walks through Rotary Park will be given throughout the festival, on these walks you can expect to see plenty of native Cape Coral wildlife just not the burrowing owl, in order to see the burrowing owls in their natural habitat you need to take one of the bus tours that will take you to nearby burrows. At the festival you can learn how to make a starter burrow in person to help encourage burrowing owls to co-inhabit your property (more on how to make starter burrows later in the blog). Live animals will be present at the festival, mostly birds of prey. Bus tours are available to take you to local owl burrows, as well as demonstration on how the owls make their burrows and use them for their way of life. For small children, there are tons of free arts and crafts aimed to explore their creative abilities and create lasting memories to understand the important role of the burrowing owl in Cape Coral and Southwest Florida. Tours through the live interactive butterfly house are available all day to people of all ages, in the butterfly house you will learn all about the different species of butterflies found in Cape Coral and what they do for our ecosystems. Lots of live music and food vendors will be present at the event catering specifically to the festival. All residents of Cape Coral can find something to enjoy at the festival and help in doing our part to help save our threatened city bird, the Florida burrowing owl.


The Burrowing Owl
The burrowing owl is the smallest species of owl known to man, only growing to about the size of a soda can. Despite their small size they have a huge impact of keeping the rodent/pest populations in Cape Coral down. These cute little birds attract people from all over the world to Cape Coral to see and photograph the owls in person. Unlike most owl species the burrowing owls do not live in trees or barns, they live underground in, (you guessed it) burrows. These small, brown, yellow eyed birds are very unique, so unique that Cape Coral has a festival dedicated to them. Standing from 8-11 inches tall with a wingspan from about 20-24 inches the burrowing owl weighs less than a can of soda. They live on a diet of, crickets, moths, beetles, mice/rats, lizards, and even snakes. It seems like these little birds will eat just about anything they can! Burrowing owls are sometimes called “Howdy Owls” because of the little head nod they do when they see a person. Burrowing owls can be found all over the Americas, from as far north as Canada, to as far south as Argentina, but we are lucky enough to have the largest known population of the species right here in Cape Coral. They were not always here, in the 1950’s as Cape Coral was being developed, the newly created wide open flat land from developers chopping down trees attracted the species. Burrowing owls live in treeless areas like golf courses and agricultural land because they can look out for predators like eagles and hawks. Vacant lots found throughout Cape Coral are a personal favorite spot for the owls to dig their homes. Their homes are burrows they dig to be up to 8 feet underground. At the entrance to the burrow there is an opening about the size of a small plate which leads all the way to a nesting cavity where they lay their eggs and future their young. Burrowing owls mate for life and will live in the same nest for their entire adult lives if the conditions don’t force them to leave. Female owls lay up to 8 eggs in one week, after about a month newborn owls hatch with snowy white feathers. The baby owls are called chicks and stay in the burrow for the first few weeks of their lives. After they are about three months old they are able to take care of themselves and move out to live on their own and build their own burrows. A lot of the time building a burrow from scratch is too much work so they will take over holes made by squirrels, armadillos, and other small animals. People are encouraged to help the owls move onto their property by creating “starter burrows” for them. To make a starter burrow you must first find an area on your property that is open with little to no tree cover, then take a shovel and dig about a foot into the ground piling dirt around the entrance to the hole, lastly make a wooden perch in a T shape to get an owls attention. Demonstrations on how to do this are available online or in person at the annual Burrowing Owl Festival at Rotary Park. Burrowing owls have a life expectancy of 6-10 years but unfortunately a lot of them don’t live this long; cats, flooding, developing land, and cars kill many of these owls earlier in life. So many are killed that the Burrowing owl have been labeled a threatened species since November 2016 and are at risk of becoming the newest member to the endangered species list. With populations of burrowing owls plummeting due to habitat loss from development across the state a lot is being done to try and protect the species. It is now a felony to destroy the burrowing owls nest with fines and other penalties ranging from $100-$5,000 and jail time from 60 days- 5 years in prison. In January Cape Corals city council approved a new law allowing city police officers to enforce the state statue protecting burrowing owls. Since cape coral is growing so fast the vacant lots these owls called home are disappearing at a very fast rate. This is one of the reasons people are so strongly encouraged to build starter burrows on their properties. It is up to us to help save the burrowing owl in Cape Coral. If you are interested in doing so, going to the Festival at Rotary Park is a fantastic place to start.