Bay Oaks Seniors on the Go: THE BURROWING OWL FESTIVAL

The Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife Host the Burrowing Owl Festival

The ninth Annual Burrowing Owl Festival was held on February 26, 2011. The festival is hosted by the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife and serves as a fundraiser to help pay for materials to help maintain the owls’ burrows, of which there are 2,500 in the city of Cape Coral. The owls are long-legged, ground-dwelling, pint-sized birds that live in open, treeless areas. They are about 9 inches tall and feed on insects, small frogs, lizards and rodents. The owl has been in Cape Coral since the 1950s, before the land began to be developed. It was flat land that was part desert and part prairie and was the perfect habitat for the burrowing owl. The owl is found in parts of Canada, states west of the Mississippi River, and south into Mexico, Central and South America. A separate subspecies of Burrowing Owl is found in Florida and the Carribean Islands. The owls can fly, but are really incredibly vulnerable because of their size (maybe 4 ounces) and their earth-bound habitat. On this festival day, there are bus tours to active burrowing owl nests, which are roped off and protected from harassment or disturbance by state law.

Bay Oaks Social Seniors arrive at the Burrowing Owl Festival on a beautiful, sunny morning in Cape Coral, Florida.

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife sponsor this annual event.

Margie, Carmen and Cora peek out from a marine-life picture board. The picture board promotes Nature on Wheels, a traveling environmental education facility.

If you want to start an owl burrow in your yard, there is plenty of information and help available.

This is the first of several tents which house areas for live animal exhibits; children’s crafts; information about nature centers, preserves and sanctuaries; and exhibits that promote environmental stewardship.

The SW Florida Astronomical Society has assembled all kinds of telescopes and even offers “loaner telescopes” to take home with you.

A child peers through a telescope with a little help from her friends.

A man takes a look through one of the large telescopes.

Jan has some “Red Neck Barbecue.”

Owl motifs are used all over the festival grounds, even as tent anchors.

If you look closely, you can see the burrowing owl that Olivia made from a pine cone, cotton puffs, feathers and owl eyes.

Meghan offers birdhouses for children to paint. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of young people here today who are involved in conservation efforts.

Two Box turtles in the straw.

A Sulcata Tortoise, which looks like a gopher tortoise when it‘s young.

This Red Lord Amazon Parrot seems fearless.

A full-grown dwarf Nubian goat looks for grass to nibble on.

Donna displays information on worm composting.

Peyton treats this corn snake with tender, loving care.

A child views a cutaway display of a honeybee hive. Of course, there’s honey to purchase nearby.

“Homeward Bound Greyhounds” is a rescue and adoption agency that takes care of greyhounds. This greyhound was completely calm and gentle even though everyone, including me, wanted to pet him.

A manatee skeleton illustrates the size of these fascinating, friendly, and very large animals.

An Eastern screech owl gazes out of his cage.

A representative points out the location of Six-Mile Cypress Slough to an interested visitor.

The owl motif recurs in the garden near the Butterfly House.

The Butterfly House

A white butterfly on a white butterfly bush.

The Butterfly House guide.

The Butterfly House guide with Monarch butterfly nails.

The state butterfly is painted on a bench.

A real zebra longwing, the Florida state butterfly, is on the ceiling of the Butterfly House.

The Seniors are assembling to go home.

We don’t go straight home. We stop to visit some actual burrows, which are roped off.

We gather to view one of the burrows with no luck. It’s 2:00 in the afternoon, it’s 80 degrees out, and there are a bunch of people creating a din outside their homes. No wonder the owls stay in hiding.