Burrowing Owl, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
I was writing recently about the bison in Badlands National Park here in the blog but other species have been on my radar as well. The Burrowing Owl is always among them, and I can tell you, it’s not a bird you may find easily. It is a small, long legged owl that is active during the day, while most other owls are nocturnal. They nest in underground burrows, and in Badlands National Park it is most of the time a den in a prairie dog town. It took us more than ten years to find this owl in the wild and after our first encounter in 2018 I was very happy to find two new, but different locations during my visit a week ago. An abundant burrow isn’t easy to spot among all the active dens populated by thousands of prairie dogs but as soon I see a bird flying somewhere low to the ground, I have the binoculars up. The Burrowing Owl feeds on larger arthropods, but also on birds and small mammals, like mice, small rabbits, ground squirrels, and others.