I'm working on having a good selection of nest boxes available for spring
house-hunting. Building the nest boxes is the easy part. Getting them high
enough in a tree to attract a variety of birds is a real challenge. We have
put up a Barn Owl-sized and a Screech-Owl-sized box. (By "we", I mean my
long-suffering husband George has risked life and limb on an extension
ladder while I stood on the bottom step and offered useless advice). The big
Barn Owl box is at about 12 ft high and the Screech-Owl box is at 15 ft. I'd
like to get a few boxes at least 20 ft up; 30 ft if I can figure out how to
do it.

Any tips on hanging a box, especially a large box, up high? I put a hook in
the top, which is useful for attaching a rope and pulleying the box up.
There's still that sticky problem of climbing a ladder with a drill and a
cordless screwdriver and working on a bulky object from a precarious
platform. It's especially hard to attach the top of the box. I fantasize
about a system of hooked feet, remote controlled from the ground, that I
would use to maneuver the box into place, then a set of screws driven by
miniature jet packs that I could also set off by remote control. Sadly, I
lack NASA's budget and access to its engineers. Does anyone have any tips
about getting a nest box high and firmly attached? (I am seriously thinking
of getting about 10 boxes built and then hiring an arborist to install them
all in a day if it's not too expensive.)

Kelly Cassidy
Pullman