Dear Tweeters,

Having just subscribed for the first time in years to
"Audubon" [shame on me!], I received the recent issue
with a cover story on Barn Owls. The article showed a
type of Barn Owl nest box that is used with great
success in California orchards. They look like
oversized bird-boxes set on their sides, and are made
out of old fruit crates.

We have had Barn Owls in our barn from time to time,
but they have not nested since we moved in. When we
bought the place, we found a mummified baby Barn Owl
in the loft, so we know they did breed there once
(plus the loft is full of pellets and whitewash).

I recently added a nest shelf, way up high on the wall
of the loft, but the birds have not even landed on it,
as far as I can tell. A single owl just seems to come
in to roost up in the rafters, and not even every day.


Last year a Great Horned Owl came and then our Barn
Owls disappeared, just when it was starting to settle
into a routine. If I find the time, I want to build
one of the boxes as shown in "Audubon," to offer a bit
more protection.





--- Bruce Whittington <fieldnat at pacificcoast.net>
wrote:
> The one I have used came from a book called "Owls:
> Their Natural and
> Unnatural History" by John Sparks and Tony Soper
> (David & Charles, I
> think published in North America by Facts on File)
> if you can find one
> in a library. It is essentially a tray for use
> inside a barn or other
> building, about 2 feet by three feet, with sides
> about 12 inches high.
> The 3 foot length is divided across the middle with
> a divider a little
> lower than the sides, into two equal spaces. The
> idea is they enter the
> box into the front compartment, and lay eggs in the
> back. In our barn
> the loft was used daily to drop hay down for horses,
> so I closed the
> sides of the tray right up to the roof, so as not to
> spook the owls so
> much. In a bigger barn they seem to get used to
> animals and humans more
> easily. We also had a shelf outside the opening for
> landing, roosting,
> getting away from the kids, etc. We put in a little
> door to monitor
> nesting, and over several years used a tiny video
> camera with infrared
> lighting to film them, day and night (hundreds of
> hours). If you do not
> have a suitable building, they may use a more
> conventional nest box,
> but it would have to be big - six or seven almost
> fledged owls take up
> a lot of space.
>
> Good luck with it - they're lots of fun.
>
> Bruce Whittington
> Ladysmith, BC
> mailto: fieldnat at pacificcoast.net
>
> On Wednesday, March 17, 2004, at 10:09 AM, Norma E
> Larson wrote:
>
> > Hi Tweets--
> >
> > Does anyone know of a good recipe for a barn owl
> nest box? I'd like to
> > try my luck. I have the tools--
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Norma Larson
> > Tukwila, WA
> > abbynorma at juno.com
> >
>


=====

Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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