This Burrowing Owl was found lying on a busy roadway on Tucson’s southeast side, likely the victim of a car strike. The person who found it brought the bird to the Tucson Wildlife Center for evaluation by their veterinarians. Tests and observation at TWC revealed no serious injuries. After a few days the Burrowing Owl was transferred to the Arizona Raptor Center for placement in a safer area. I was invited to the Owl’s release in the agricultural fields northwest of Tucson. There are many active burrows among those agricultural fields so this Owl has a chance to live a good life among his species.
The Burrowing Owl wasted no time exiting his carrier and it shot into the field.
At first, all it did was just fly fast. It seemed to want to get as far away as possible and as quickly as possible. The Burrowing Owl barely skimmed the ground as it flew.
Burrowing Owls are about 8-10 inches tall, measured from their head to the tip of their tail. Their wingspan is 22 inches tip-to-tip.
While we held our breath, time seemed to slow down and the Owl zoomed in a straight line at first. Its primary thought was likely “just get far away.”
And then, at about 25 yards, it finally relaxed and began to investigate its surroundings.
It turned towards some “tall” vegetation, flying past some Russian thistle, aka tumbleweed, and continued to survey the area.
It detoured past the tumbleweed, still orienting to the area and looking for a good place to land.
It cleared the tumbleweed patch and kept flying.
At that point the Burrowing Owl locked onto a distant clump of vegetation and flew directly towards its destination.
It landed in front of another patch of plants, too far away for me to get a photo. We watched as it sat there for a while. After getting its bearings, the Burrowing Owl then flew farther across the field towards where other burrows were located. We walked away happy to have been part of this successful chapter of the bird’s life.
Nice flight shots!