Thanks to all for the nest box ideas. Charles Swift gave me the name of
someone who used to hire a tree climber. I'll give her a call. Several
people suggested a cherry picker. That would certainly be the easiest
solution, but I wouldn't be able to use one until the ground dries in
August. Few of the potential nest box trees are near a road or the driveway
and the ground is very soggy right now.

Re: Big owls eating Screech-Owls. I should probably have emphasized that I
don't expect the birds to read the nest box label. I'd love to get
Screech-Owls, but I think I live in too open an area and have too many Great
Horned Owls. A Great Horned Owl pair has lately been roosting in a big
spruce next to the house. They have noisy duets in the wee hours. Both of
them were blinking down at me from the tree this morning. It's the same
tree I hung the so-called Screech-Owl box in. A Kestrel pair has been
extremely territorial this last month. When a Great Horned Owl dares to fly
around before dark, the kestrels appear out of nowhere to chase it back into
a conifer. I think the kestrels may already have designs on the
"Screech-Owl" box. If they don't use it, I suspect the flickers will be
next in line.

We had a pair of Barn Owls in our old barn. With the protection of the
barn, they were apparently able to coexist with the GH Owls. We pulled the
barn down early this fall. I haven't seen the Barn Owls since. I'm hoping
to lure a pair back, but, although I hung a box just in case, I'm not sure a
box will give them enough security from the GH Owls. Instead, I've decided
to build them an apartment in the shop. The shop building is about 20 feet
high with vents near the top. I plan to remove the vent covers and build a
large box behind the vents.

Still, I'd like to get a bunch of boxes of many different sizes scattered
around the two acre lot to attract whatever I could, owls or otherwise.
There are no squirrels of any kind out here and few other tree-climbing
mammalian nest predators.

Kelly Cassidy