CAPE CORAL, FLA — Elsa's rain, wind, and floodwaters have been a big inconvenience for many in Southwest Florida, including...Some of our smallest neighbors.
"The impact can be horrible, especially when it's a windy thing for our burrowing owls particularly the nests flood," said Pascha Donaldson, of Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife.
Donaldson says for burrowing owls in Cape Coral things could have been much worse.
"We're just on the border of nesting season, getting out of nesting so most of the babies have fledged. The babies are able to get to safety," she said.
While they wait for their homes to dry out, Donaldson says you may see some of the birds hanging out on your roofs, porches, or lanais.
She encourages folks to be a little more careful while driving and moving about over the next few days, to avoid injuring them.
"Let nature do its thing, they'll eventually go back, they prefer to be by their burrows," she said.
If you do happen to see an injured bird, she says you should call for help or safely trap them if you know how to.
"Number one you don't feed it. Cover its face, its eyes, and its eyes and it can't fight you. Put it in a box, keep it quiet and there are some veterinarians in cape coral that you can drop them off to," she said.
And Donaldson says the burrowing owl population always takes a hit due to storms, one of their biggest threats is the loss of habitats due to construction.
It's an issue the group "Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife," is working hard to fight in order to keep these protected birds from ending up on the endangered species list.
