Give a hoot: Burrowing owl census takes wing in Cape Coral

A feathered owl head pounced out from a mound of dirt, followed by a second and then a third.

A few tufts of weeds to the left sat another burrow and another set of owls, their beige-brown faces rotating clockwise to keep tabs on a minivan with a binocular-toting man in its passenger seat.

“Look at them all,” Carl Veaux said, peering through his trusty Bushnells. “There’s another juvenile right back there.”

This veritable burrowing-owl village sat in a scrubby lot next to Grace Church. The owls overlooked the passing traffic of Hancock Bridge Parkway in Cape Coral.