Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe MIAMI, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Burrowing owls are protected in Florida, but for some construction officials in the Fort Lauderdale area, there are way too many of them. State law forbids disturbing nesting birds from Feb. 15 through July 10, which means builders can't build during that period, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Friday. Advertisement Most of the projects affected involve schools, because owls like wide open spaces to build their nests in the ground and schools seem to have more open areas than most other places. At South Plantation High School, the birds, which can grow as long as 11 inches, have forced a year's delay and $100,000 in extra expenses to make a parking lot and a football field -- a $2.3 million project. At Tropical Elementary, part of a playground has been off limits to children for years because of the burrows. The have burrowed so often at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton they have become the team mascot, "The Fighting Owls."
