Santa Fe golf course turns to owls to control prairie dogs
When Liz Roberts saw the barn owls she was transporting to Santa Fe screeching at the sight of her, she couldn’t have been happier.
It meant she did her job rehabilitating the birds over the past several weeks, because they hadn’t grown accustomed to human contact. They were ready to venture into the wild.
“If they’re standing up, screeching at you, then they fear you,” said Roberts, who rehabilitates barn owls for Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico. “If they’re like, ‘Oh, hey, she’s here,’ then you’re like, ‘Ohno…’”
Roberts, founder of the organization that rescues and rehabilitates displaced wildlife, and Penny Elliston, a volunteer with the group, brought a pair of barn owls to their new home Wednesday — as guests at Santa Fe Country Club. The owls, which cannot yet fly because they are only several weeks old, were transferred to an enclosed owl house built by country club members Alan Hamilton and Tim Conley between the first hole and No. 17 as a means to give the birds a place to call their own.
But they are there also as a more natural way of addressing the decades-old problem of prairie dog overpopulation on the grounds.
The barn owls’ arrival was the culmination of a roughly four-year project Hamilton and Conley started to find a way to address that issue. Because the golf course is in the prairie dog’s natural habitat, they often burrow and dig holes all over the course, which can impact the health of the course’s grass, as well as create holes that golfers can step in and injure themselves.
It became such a huge problem the course’s board of directors hired a person to focus just on the furry creatures.
Initially, members erected several owl houses around the course to attract them, but they found other birds nesting in them. It wasn’t until Hamilton was with a friend who oversees fruit trees
in Nambé and had his own battle with prairie dogs that he stumbled upon a potential solution for Santa Fe Country Club.
“He put up some owl boxes, and they just cleaned them out,” Hamilton said.
Still, it took some time for golf course members to make contact with Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New
Mexico. It was almost like a game of “telephone,” in which information trickled from one person to another before it reached Elliston’s ears.
“It was like Alan knew this guy, who knew this guy and he told me about what they were trying to
do,” Elliston said.
What Wildlife Rescue Inc. of New Mexico and Santa Fe Country Club members needed, though, was the right owls at the right time.
Elliston said the organization often receives orphaned or injured animals from people they know or from veterinarians who cannot keep them. In the case of barn owls, she said many of the babies Wildlife Rescue receive usually fall out of nests the parents create in high tree tops.
“They nest in cavities, high up in these cottonwood holes,” Elliston said. “A lot of times, you have to get the fire department to get them back up there. Otherwise, the parents just don’t pay attention to them. If they get replaced, the parents will take care of them. If they don’t, they’re goners.”
Roberts, who houses a male barn owl, had a group of six owls she was rehabilitating, but they were already at a point in their maturity where they were ready for what she called a “soft release.” That meant she opened up the doors to the cage they lived in, but they could return if they liked.
Roberts said using those owls would be pointless because they more likely to just leave the course and find their own habitat. However, she had a pair of barn owls who were young enough to make the transition to a new home.
This is the first time Roberts has transferred owls to a golf course, and she is intrigued by the country club’s project.
“These ones are young,” Roberts said. “They’re still trying to acclimate.”
The country club will use a group of groundskeepers and members to feed the owls in the meantime. Once the birds can fly, country club members will take down the netting over the top of their house and allow them to roam freely. The hope is that these nocturnal creatures can find enough food to stay on the course. If it doesn’t work, though, club members and Wildlife Rescue are willing to try it again next year.
“If we can get a nesting situation going, then that would be great,” Conley said. “I think we can provide a nesting situation because there are enough animals for them to be able to take for food.”
In the meantime, Roberts can rest easy that she did her part — as long as she hears the screeching she so desires.