Burrowing Owls And Banding

Burrowing Owls are among my favorite species to experience and photograph but in recent years some of the joy has been taken out of it.

 

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 1/160, f/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in

I photographed this owl 15 months ago on Antelope Island.  In this case I think the sidelight worked well, partly because of the way it lit up the birds right eye.   I like the natural sagebrush setting and the Great Salt Lake in the upper background.  I also appreciate the fact that either this bird isn’t banded or if it is the band isn’t visible.

 

 

burrowing owl 0345 ron dudley

This Antelope Island juvenile has been banded.  It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find Burrowing Owls that haven’t been banded and there’s good reason for that.  There has been an alarming decline in Burrowing Owl populations and the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species as a National Bird of Conservation Concern in 2002.  Many western states list them as Endangered, Threatened or Species of Special Concern.  Mexico lists them as a Species of Special Protection.   Research that involves banding gives us information that can be used to better understand the forces leading to their decline and hopefully enable us to mitigate some of those forces.

However, in my opinion there’s a downside to all this banding and tagging of our wildlife because it diminishes the wilderness aesthetic for many.  It seems that everywhere I turn birds are banded and mammals are ear-tagged or neck banded.  In many cases it’s not because the species is threatened, it’s simply a tool for big game management.   On Antelope Island alone most Bison are tagged as are many Pronghorn and Bighorn Sheep.  I’ve also seen and photographed tagged coyotes on the island.   Many of their songbirds such as Loggerhead Shrikes have been banded for studies relating to the effects of mercury contamination.  In 2013 alone, 70 Burrowing Owls were banded on Antelope Island.  In many of our “wild” areas across the country it seems that there are more individuals of big game species (bears, bighorn, goats etc) that are tagged than are not.  At times I almost get the feeling that I’m in a zoo instead of a wild place…

It seems to me that some thought must be given to how far this banding and tagging should go.  Are we prepared to have virtually every large wild mammal tagged and a high percentage of our birds banded?  If we are and the implications have been well-considered, then so be it.  But if we aren’t we’d best start thinking about limits and/or alternatives because we’re getting there fast.

No, I don’t have any answers but I thought I’d raise a question that I’ve heard discussed privately many times but I’ve never seen any public discussion of the issue.

Ron

Note:  Please don’t think that because I raised the question I’d be willing to sacrifice the welfare of critters for the sake of photographs without banded or tagged subjects.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I actively support bird-banding groups like HawkWatch International, Great Salt Lake Institute and others.   

36 Comments

  1. Provocative and informative post, Ron!

    I very much relate to your response to Mike, as you and I seem to have had very similar paths to the love of nature. As far as my opinion goes on this subject, I shall defer to King Solomon.

  2. Ron, just last week Mia and I chatted via email about the ethics and actions of humans in regards to birds and wildlife. It came about after two recent highly publicized and outrageous acts of abuse; one by a researcher and one by a photographer. Having a foot solidly in each camp I was disgusted by both. That said, I’m not opposed to putting bands on birds IF there’s a compelling reason to do it and IF it’s done with care and concern for the bird. I DO have a problem when it’s done reflexively by banders who just enjoy catching birds or by agencies/researchers without a relevant question or purpose.

    A bird is no less wild to me because it has a band. A band indicates a free flying bird intersected with a human for a very short time, but that doesn’t mean the bird lost it’s freedom or is being “managed”. It means data is being managed. I’d argue that I’m a more active manager of the birds at my feeder than the birds I band. And hopefully both actions serve a valid purpose!

    I understand your frustration at not being able to get a photo of an unbanded owl on Antelope, but I think it’s a somewhat unique and isolated (literally) situation. A relatively large percentage of the population there exists in artificial burrows concentrated in easily accessed areas of the island, both to biologists and visitors. Although I don’t know the specifics of the research Antelope Island does in partnership with The Global Owl Project, I’m pretty sure their main objective is to increase the number of wild burrowing owls in the world, and at this point in time a band is the most practical way to keep track of progress, or lack of.

    Again, I know this stuff drives you crazy as a premiere nature photographer. The hand of man sometimes seems likes it’s everywhere. But I contend that it already IS everywhere (band or no band) by virtue of all of our collective everyday actions.

    • Mike, I was hoping you’d weigh in on this at some point. I mostly agree with you, it’s just that my view has a slightly different slant.

      Before I took up photography I used to be an avid fisherman until I realized that I didn’t much give a damn about catching fish. It was the experience of “wildness” that I craved, not the fishing. I always chose the most remote and wild area possible to fish and found myself paying much more attention to the vistas, birds and other wildlife than I did my fishing (my binocs were in my hands more often than my fishing pole). So when I retired I took up bird and wildlife photography in an attempt to scratch the same itch without the distraction of having a line in the water.

      For me the “great bird photograph” is not the ultimate goal (though it’s an important one). It’s being in a relatively wild place, experiencing critter behaviors, hearing the sounds and smelling the smells of nature – REAL nature. If I have that experience but don’t get “the shot” I’m satisfied (though the shot would be nice too). I tend to avoid areas where wonderful bird photography opportunities exist but the place is a zoo with hordes of birders and other photographers because I don’t enjoy that kind of experience (Farmington Bay during eagle season comes to mind…)

      A big part of the experience I crave is visual (both with my eyes and in my images). If I were camping in a forest and many of the trees were marked (even subtly) with orange spray paint for management purposes (as they often are in certain areas of some forests) it would, and does, diminish my experience significantly. I feel similarly about banded birds and collared or tagged mammals. When it was just a few of them it wasn’t a significant issue but in my view it’s beginning to get out of hand. Recently, Antelope Island State Park made a big deal on their Facebook page of the fact that you could go up to Buffalo Point and actually see Bighorn Sheep fairly close and they included photos of what you could expect – collared and tagged sheep. I wasn’t even tempted…

      All that said, I realize that (sadly) we now live in a managed world and without that management we’d lose more “wildlife” and I’d be a devastated human being because of it. That’s why I enthusiastically support the banding work of HawkWatch International and many other groups that help to manage what’s left of our wildlife (when it’s done with forethought and good reason, which as you’ve said isn’t always the case).

      But I don’t have to like the fact that it’s necessary in the first place. And I continue to question how much of it is done, especially with game species – both birds and mammals.

      I agree with you that birds at feeders are highly “managed”, which is why I don’t photograph birds at feeders or any other “setup” situation.

      Thanks, good friend. I appreciate your input. A lot!

  3. My 11 year old is an avid birder, and is deep into reading and thinking about extinction, evolution, endangered species, managed wildlife, etc. lately. He feels sad whenever he sees a banded bird (or a tagged/collared mammal) and recently when I asked him why he felt sad, he said “because if it’s managed, it isn’t wild.” That pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject as well. I understand the arguments folks have for how/why banding and tagging might help animals – but little by little, we People are taking the wild out of wildlife, and what that leaves us… it’s not quite the same – and I don’t quite like it.

    Interesting subject for sure. And fabulous photos. We saw Burrowing Owls for the first time this winter, when we took a trip down to Florida from our home state of New Hampshire. They were not banded – and that made us smile 🙂

    • “we People are taking the wild out of wildlife, and what that leaves us… it’s not quite the same – and I don’t quite like it.”

      Well said, Colleen. Your son sounds like quite the young man!

    • Your 11 year old son summed upon my feelings exactly…..for some of us, when we see “unwilded” critters collared, banded,tagged, “defiled”, we feel cheated…denied of something special, “magical”, sacred, “wild” …the moment has been tarnished, feelings made even worse by wondering what discomfort, injury, inconvenience or hazard it causes for the once “wild” critter we see wearing one of these “one more man-made manipulations”. Sometimes man’s need to control everything reminds me of male dogs who need to pee on every vertical object, marking all as “his”…Again, I GET IT as to WHY this is done and, again, I still DON’T LIKE IT! So save your hreath and hate me if you must. I’d like to see more money and effort made to educate and limit the number of two-legged predator-destroyers…then many of these problems might resolve themselves without “managing” other species.

  4. Love that roly-poly, cute and curvy little guy sitting in the sage and dried brush….just want to squeeeeeeze him!!! It’s such a great image on so many counts…colors, composition, detail, expression, lighting….just plain wonderful!…AND I don’t see a damned band!!!

  5. Ron–I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am that there are people like you and Mia, visually and verbally speaking for those that can’t. I give thanks every day for my own curiosity which, on my quest to find out about eye color in Golden Eagles, led me to your blog site…and even greater thanks for the gifts of images and information you and your followers bring.You have tremendous influence and power through your beautiful portrayals and comments…power to reach many, many people in many places. I am grateful to be able to read the comments of others, to learn from them, too, and most of all, to realize how many feel the same way I do. We don’t all agree on everything, but there are enough souls similar to mine to ease things a bit and reassure me. I definitely feel you, Mia and Ellie Baby are in that category.

  6. The idea that one of my favorite, funniest, birds is so threatened makes me very, very sad! I would like to think their decline is reversible, but I’m not that much of an optimist anymore. Although I understand the purpose and importance of banding, seeing bands on birds, tags in animals’ ears, antennae epoxied onto turtle shells, neck bands on swans, thick collars on bears, etc. effect me much the same as finding crumpled cigarette packages, gum or candy wrappers,condoms, plastic water bottles, beer cans, any kind of plastic, etc. in deep woods does. I feel real, physical pain. Something very precious to me is lost when I see that band. I feel “violated” in a away…like my right to see the bird in its natural state has been taken from me…and I ALWAYS wonder how the bird of animal feels about it….The same is true when I see the image of a beautiful raptor sitting on a pole, cable or wire. ..or in a cage. Save your breath, folks…I don’t need, or want, you to tell me WHY this has to happen! I GET IT! …but I don’t have to like it.

    • “Save your breath, folks…I don’t need, or want, you to tell me WHY this has to happen! I GET IT! …but I don’t have to like it.”

      Perfectly said, Patty – that’s exactly the way I feel…

  7. It is such a tricky compromise. And I am reminded of a phrase my father often used ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’. And no, I have no answers. Lots of concern (and concerns) but no answers.

  8. As a wildlife rehabilitator, I see maybe 250 birds a year, primarily raptors – maybe ONE bird every few years comes in with a band. (Though if we get a spotted owl without a band, everyone is excited!) Of course, birds that come into contact with people, both to get injured and to be found and rescued, are usually the more common species and less likely to be banded. Even when, for several years, we banded most raptors we released, our band returns were very small – interesting, but few in number. So I don’t think banded birds are a very large percentage of any population, unless that population is seriously at risk. As I mentioned in my last comment, the only reason the sharp decline in the Swainson’s population was stopped was because the drop in the North American breeding population stimulated research, which led to satellite telemetry, which led to finding their wintering grounds, which led to determining the source of the problem and led to the international effort to fix it. Banding those birds wouldn’t have helped at all – but satellite telemetry, or even regular telemetry (which wouldn’t have worked in this case, either), is very expensive – as in thousands of dollars. And I won’t even begin to discuss the various places you can put a transmitter: leg, tail, back … and the possible ramifications of each or of the weight of the transmitter, battery life, etc.

    That said, the reason we at my organization have stopped banding for the most part is because we have seen serious injuries within our own glove-trained birds with leather anklets (which are more loosely applied even than bands and certainly have more ‘give.’) Although we don’t know HOW it happens, twice now we’ve found our birds with swollen lower legs where the anklet, due to the swelling, was compromising circulation. Our surmise is that the birds somehow twisted the foot, swelling ensured, and the anklet made the problem much, much worse – to the risk of losing the foot. So I do believe that bands could cause a problem.

    I don’t have a good answer on banding – I would think that we KNOW many of the problems that burrowing owls are facing: habitat loss, destruction of prairie dog and ground squirrel colonies on which the owls depend for burrows, and we need to address that. We don’t know why kestrels are declining. We know that many predators – not just birds – are carrying sublethal doses of rodenticides that can cause them to be more susceptible to other accidents; not to mention sub-lethal lead levels or organophosphate levels. And I’d add to Patricia’s list on causes for song bird declines: outdoor cats. Surely we could address those issues first, and watch populations rebound (I hope!)

    • Louise, I agree that at this point most birds of most species aren’t banded. Around here I most commonly see bands on Burrowing Owls, Loggerhead Shrikes, Yellow-headed Blackbirds and a variety of waterfowl species (some may remember that last year I photographed a banded Prairie Falcon). I imagine the species most banded depends on what studies are ongoing in a particular area.

      Interesting that you’ve had several injuries with your birds that were caused by more loosely applied and flexible leather anklets. Makes one wonder what really happens out there with plastic or metal-banded birds in the wild

      And yes, I’d also add outdoor cats to Patricia’s list.

      Thank you for yet another enlightening and knowledgeable comment!

  9. Patricia Davidson-Peters

    Being rural, I’ve never witnessed a banded bird – or other animal for that matter. I’m fortunate enough to photograph them in my backyard, or enjoy watching them in a natural habitat.

    According to National Geographic and the Audubon, it appears we already know why the population of birds is declining: global warming, wind turbines, suburban sprawl, excessive logging, drilling, and mining.

    Considering the fact that humans are the reasons why the numbers are declining, it seems to me that banding them is just another infraction contributing to their demise.

    Beautiful first photo, Ron.

    • Thanks for your thoughts on this, Patricia. Personally I have no doubt that banding is a valuable tool in learning more about birds and then applying that knowledge for their benefit. I’m only saying that the potential downsides of banding are not well known and have possibly been given less attention than they warrant.

  10. Johanna van de Woestijne

    A biologist who did his master’s degree work on the diet of Burrowing Owls told me that he had grave concerns about banding Burrowing Owls, in part because of the trauma to the owls during banding, but also because they picked at the bands forever after that and were more vulnerable to the predators (Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Golden Eagle) because they had their heads down worrying at the bands rather than heads up and vigilant for predators. But, so far as I know, no one has done a proper controlled study of morbidity and mortality of banded versus for example under the skin implanted chip or no tracker at all. I agree completely with you about seeing so many banded birds, especially when there seem to be no control studies for the likely negative effects. I do remember reading a penguin study that compared internal microchip tagging versus external bands. The study found that survival and reproduction was so much reduced by the banding (causing drag during critical feeding forays) that all data that had been obtained with banded subjects had to be called into question.

    • This kind of thing is something I’ve often wondered about, Johanna – what empirical evidence do we have of the potential damage to birds caused by banding? It seems to me that for lack of proper studies we don’t really know. And we should. I’ve seen several birds (yes, including juvenile Burrowing Owls) picking at their bands. Very interesting comment.

  11. Ron, in reference to migratory critters such as birds, I think saturating the population with bands is useful. In a threatened or endangered species, it is absolutely necessary. Consider Burrowing Owls, a bird which you show here and discuss its current status. They are migratory, and have suffered habitat loss and declines all across its range. If juveniles are banded on Antelope Island for instance, and recaptured somewhere else such as an area showing declines, it will give further insight into population admixture and how to conduct conservation efforts. Of course, there are other ways to track movements (isotopes, DNA analysis) but these are more costly to researchers at the moment.

    I’m a guy with his foot in a few buckets though. As a photographer and a birder, I sympathize with how you feel when your image is tainted by a metal band. This is why I’m very supportive of moving to better ways to map individual and population movements.

    I love to see that you are stimulating a conversation. Perhaps public conversations such as this will push more research towards using alternative and noninvasive ways of assessing movements, which will ultimately take down the cost. Then future generations will enjoy views and images of seemingly untouched wildlife, and poor owls will not have to suffer the stress of being probed by bearded aliens such as myself.

    As always, a great post.

    • As always, you make some great points, Bryce. And I largely agree. I’m simply pointing out that there’s a price to be paid for banding (including one paid by the birds, particularly burrowing owls, because the process is disturbing to them – invading their burrows often causes the owls to abandon them). I sure hope that sometime in the near future the costs of less invasive tracking methods becomes practical.

  12. Mikal Deese, CWR

    Ron, I think you’ve put a light on a larger point. As we humans continue to multiply and “manage”, the entire world IS becoming a zoo. Wildness only remains because we have chosen to leave some spots with a semblance of the original wild. The untouched vastness of 100 years ago, of 50 years ago, of only 20 years ago, is gone forever. I wish I had better news to report.

    • You’re right, of course, Mikal. But “zooness” is a matter of degree. Are we willing to go even further in that direction and if so, how far? I fear we’ll reach the point where going to actual zoos will be just as appealing to folks as going to what’s left of our natural places. It’s a balancing act, to be sure…

  13. I really have to express another view. I don’t know about the antelopes etc., but as for birds, many species are declining drastically and need all the help they can get. They only way to help them is to have solid knowledge of their habitats, life cycles, migrations. The efforts of scientists to get this information are sadly tiny compared to the forces arrayed against species survival: untrammeled exploitation of resources and limitless expansion of human territory. The aesthetic cost is a minuscule price to pay! For the subjects, it must not be fun to get tagged, but the birds seem to survive it and go on to reproduce.

    So while I’m here, Ron — I absolutely love your very beautiful photos and especially appreciate your interest in bird behavior. Many thanks.

  14. I am a wildlife biologist and an amateur photographer, but I must say that I get excited when I see a banded bird for a few reasons: 1) It means there are researchers in the area who care deeply enough about the species to think it warrants such study, and 2) If I can actually get a read on the band it will give researchers a bunch of good data that might help them more clearly understand a threatened or endangered species. If that information helps in some small way to save the species, then the banding was 100% successful. Bands are not in any way harmful to birds when placed properly, so why should we worry so much about what our perceived ascetic is if this is helping the species in question? Burrowing Owls in particular, and as you pointed out, are in real danger across much of their range and we need to understand the reasons behind their population declines so we can help them. On a side note: I do agree with you about the over-tagging of big game in some areas. While bird banding is a purely research-driven undertaking, the tagging of big-game is almost always to better understand the limits our hunting pressure puts on them.

    • Interesting points, Neil. Thank you. It seems to me though that the very extensive banding of most waterfowl species is also driven by attempts at “understanding the limits our hunting pressure puts on them”.

      I too report bird band numbers when I can read them.

  15. Wonderful Portraits Ron !

  16. I agree Ron. Love the 2nd shot. Just beautiful, and the eyes are so intense.

  17. ‘At times I almost get the feeling that I’m in a zoo instead of a wild place…’ My sentiments exactly. This has been on my mind frequently and I’m so glad you voiced your concerns as well. Gorgeous top photo Ron. Breathtaking color!

  18. Charlotte Norton

    Super shots and I have often wondered the same thing, I’m not knowledgeable enough to express an opinion though.
    Charlotte

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