I'm in the process of moving from my current house in Pullman to a house 6
miles south of Pullman. The house is on Staley Road next to the row of grain
silos on the Staley Siding, for those that care. The2-acre lot is an oasis
of trees amid treeless pasture and wheat fields, and is a magnet for any
rodent-loving bird that prefers to perch off the ground. A couple of weeks
ago, while checking the grounds of the new abode, I flushed a couple of
apparent Barn Owls from a cluster of conifers. They were big, very
light-colored owls, but I didn't get a good enough look for a positive ID.
The ground below the trees was littered with at least 100 owl pellets.

Way cool, except that the old, sagging barn on the property, probably where
the owls nest, needs to be torn down. That led me to an internet search for
Barn Owl nest box designs, in the hope that we can keep the owls around
after the barn is gone. Nest box designs were easy to find. Barn Owls, I
found, seem to have quite a following. They are even promoted as organic
rodent control on some organic farming sites.

Curiosity then led me to the CBC records for Barn Owls. In the
Moscow-Pullman circle, Great Horned Owls usually exceed Barn Owls, which is
not surprising. Great Horned Owls are conspicuous by their hooting and
Moscow-Pullman is Great Horned Owl utopia. But Barn Owls are holding their
own here, with about 2 to 8 on the count every other year. The 1998/1999
count bagged an astonishing 38 Barn Owls, a higher number than any of the
Great Horned counts.

Is there a point to the post? Not really, except that I'm wondering how the
Barn Owls that hang around Magnuson Park in Seattle have weathered the old
Naval base remodeling.

Kelly Cassidy
Pullman