Burrowing Owl Preservation Society
Presents class lessons for DaVinci Charter Academy Students
Breeding Season 2012

Life Science teacher, Rebekah Rottenberg invited Catherine Portman to present two class lessons for Davis DaVinci high school students. “I saw the DaVinci students’ test scores on their web site and knew I had to ‘beef up’ my burrowing owl power point a few notches to come up to the students’ intellectual level.”, Catherine said.  The lessons included raptor digestive system and raptor taxonomic order. 

Catherine designed an activity demonstrating what burrowing owls need to reproduce and the hazards to nest sites, breeding pairs, eggs and owlets. “Burrowing owls suffer significant nest failure partly because their eggs and young are food for other animals.” Catherine said. The images display that male students had to find a burrow (a 4 inch round construction paper) and food (plastic insects, lizards and mice) before they could attract a mate. Plastic eggs with notes inside (fortune cookie style) were placed in the stork gift bags that the partner had to incubate for 30 days (hold close until the end of the lecture).  The eggs were opened to reveal the fate of the eggs and owlets. For example, one couple learned that their eggs were eaten by a snake.

BOPS provided owl pellets for the students.  The students dissected burrowing owl and great horned owl pellets to see what the owls ate.

Class lessons were followed by a field trip on March 21st. Catherine set up a spotting scope so the students could see a burrowing owl pair. “February and March is the time for pair bond formation and courtship. The owls are deciding if they’d like to raise a family together,” Catherine told the students. Some of the students installed a burrow.  Installing sturdy, long lasting burrows for the owls to use increases their chances of nesting and reproduction success. Now we wait for “Occupy Burrow”—and BABIES!!!
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