Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will host the 24th Annual Burrowing Owl Festival on Feb. 28 at Rotary Park, featuring wildlife experts from Florida and beyond. The event includes educational talks from biologists and conservation leaders, including a featured speaker traveling from Canada to discuss burrowing owl conservation. Along with the speaker series, the festival will offer live animal encounters, wildlife bus tours, a conservation expo, kids’ activities, food vendors and a silent auction. A $5 donation is suggested for guests ages 12 and up, with proceeds supporting local wildlife conservation efforts.

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will host the 24th Annual Burrowing Owl Festival on Feb. 28, bringing conservation groups, tours and family activities to Rotary Park.

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will host a Southwest Florida Birding Specialty Tour on Saturday, Feb. 28 as part of the 24th Annual Burrowing Owl Festival. The four-hour guided tour runs from 7 to 11 a.m., with participants asked to arrive by 6:45 a.m. at Rotary Park, 5505 Rose Garden Road.The tour will travel by bus to multiple birding locations in Cape Coral and surrounding areas, with short walks expected at select stops. Organizers say participants may see burrowing owls and other bird species common to Southwest Florida, including bald eagles, herons and egrets.Tickets cost $70 and include admission to the Burrowing Owl Festival. Advance purchase is required through ccfriendsofwildlife.org. The festival’s Wildlife and Environmental Expo will also take place Feb. 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Rotary Park, featuring tours, vendors, speakers and family activities.

Rapid development in Cape Coral is putting pressure on wildlife habitats, prompting concern from conservation groups, city leaders and residents about the future of native species.

For the 5th year, Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife held their Ground Owl Day at Pelican Baseball Complex in Cape Coral. A short ceremony celebrated the ground owl seeing its shadow and adding 6 more weeks of winter to Southwest Florida.

Passionate defenders of Cape Coral’s burrowing owls are livid now that tractors are clearing debris from Hurricane Ian out of the city’s canals and possibly crushing dozens of owl and gopher tortoise burrows.

Pasha Donaldson, vice president of the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, does not know how many of the cape’s 3,500 burrowing owls fared during Hurricane Ian. But she does know of a way residents can help the animals that surivived the storm remain alive.“Please don’t put your trash on top of” their burrows, Donaldson said. That’s “that big thing for people dumping trash.”The burrowing owl occupies not just self-dug burrows, but can make a home in the ends of a drainage culvert underneath driveways, underneath a porch, or where a post used to be. Donaldson said to trap the owls down in their homes for the days or weeks it takes for the piles of trash created by Hurricane Ian could be deadly.

On Saturday, February 26, the Friends of Cape Coral Wildlife hosted the 20th Anniversary Burrowing Owl Festival. Instead of enjoying educational exhibits and hearing presentations from experts at Rotary Park in Cape Coral, WGCU joined a busload of photographers (and two experts) to go in search of the city bird and other feathered friends.