Burrowing Owls at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge

[mdphotography]

Not gonna lie, I'll never get over the fact that the less-talented half of Sonny and Cher had a very successful political career and was instrumental in saving this natural wonder in Southern California...but thank goodness he did.  The Salton Sea is a gem and home to burrowing owls - a threatened species in California.

I can't disclose their exact locations, but if you have a chance to visit, go early, drive slow and stay in your car: you're almost certain to see several of them!

[zakslm]

Nice shots!

A local community college near where I live maintains a burrowing owl habitat. When I leaned of it, I headed over and wasn’t disappointed.  

Agree on Sonny Bono. He was also mayor of Palm Springs at one time (I think) and there is a statue of him there.   

The beat goes on!

[SignifDigits]

I love their one-legged resting position!   That seems pretty rare, maybe unique, amongst raptors?  As a kid I just naturally learned to stand like, as I learned later, the Aboriginal one-legged resting stance.  People thought I was weird (that was actually correct - I WAS weird, of course) but it was gratifying to learn later that a whole group of people on the other side of the planet thought it was not weird.  Then I saw flamingos doing the same thing.  Now there's a bird of prey joining me, the Aborigines and the fiamingos in resting one-legged.  Of course I'm too old, crooked and imbalanced and out of practice to stand that way now but think it's cool whenever I see it crop up in nature.

Thanks for sharing!

[mdphotography]

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@SignifDigits wrote:

I love their one-legged resting position!   That seems pretty rare, maybe unique, amongst raptors?

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I've seen waders (egrets, herons, etc) rest one-legged too, but it seems to be more the exception than the norm.  I know one reason they do it is to conserve body heat - not sure if there are any others.