This is Bird Note.

The Yumatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon, a landscape dotted with a thousand concrete bunkers,

may not look like an ideal haven for birds.

It's a place where the military stored nerve gas, now decommissioned.

But the site is taken on a new life, as a luxury subdivision for burrowing owls.

Burrowing owls don't actually burrow themselves, instead moving into layers abandoned by other

creatures, like badgers.

In 1969, when the military attempted to reduce the local coyote population, they ended up

removing local badgers as well.

The local owls suffered a housing crash, and by 2007, there were just three or four breeding

pairs.

Because burrowing owls actually enjoy living in dense neighborhoods, David H. Johnson,

the founder of the Global Owl Project, began burying five gallon buckets on the site

as ready-made owl condos.

Feather tenants quickly moved in, and each time Johnson checked the buckets for owl chicks,

protective adults would scream like rattlesnakes.

As of June 2021, 92 artificial burrows hosted 62 mating pairs, and have been the birthplace

of over two and a half thousand chicks.

Unlikely as it may seem, this former depot is now a burrowing owl boomtown.

For bird note, I'm Ariana Remmel.