Occupied

In May of last year I built an owl shack to hang in my big pecan tree in the front yard.  I often heard owls outside at night and thought that was so awesome that I wanted to encourage them to live in my area. 

I found house plans specifically for the eastern screech owl online, and used wood I had on hand to put it together.  I had some huge pieces of tree bark I had been saving for fireplace kindling, and I used it on the outside of the house like siding for camouflage.  Lastly, I put a layer of wood shavings in the bottom as directed for bedding.  Instructions for hanging it in the tree were also rather specific.  With the tree that I have, I was able to abide by all of suggestions except for the direction that it faced.  I initially hung it facing the direction suggested, but quickly realized that at night my neighbors' driveway lights lit it up like an airport runway.  I moved it around to the other side of the tree.  It faces the sidewalk now -- not recommended -- but it met the other recommendations, so it was a start.  And I waited.

When I told people about it, they told me I would probably get bees in it.  Or squirrels.  I shrugged them off -- who knows what would happen? 

My previous posts about my owl shack are here:

http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/03/owl-houses.html
http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/04/owl-shacks.html
http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/05/camouflaged.html

At Halloween when I had the ladder out I mustered my courage and peered inside.  Nobody home.  At Christmas, again with the ladder, I lifted the lid and peered in.  Empty, but there was a well in the wood shavings.  Hmmm.. had something been resting there?

And then last week -- on the way home from a dog walk at dusk I looked up, and...

I HAVE AN OWL IN MY OWL SHACK!!!!

(Okay, so that is a photo I found on the internet -- but it's what he looked like!  I took a photo, but it was too dark to see anything in it.)  And then as I wheeled out my trash bins that evening for next day pick up, he craned around out the front and to the side and watched me.  It was awesome.

I haven't seen him since.  I hope that my staring or my trash bin noise didn't discourage him from returning.  But regardless, it is an encouraging start... I don't know how long he had been there, but I will be watching for him again.

Camouflaged

I can't remember if I told you that I decided to cover my owl house in some old pieces of tree bark I had saved.  What?  You don't save pieces of tree bark??  ::::grin:::

I had first tried painting the house to camouflage it, but decided it wasn't good enough.  Then I remembered I had a bunch of old bark that I had saved for fire starters.  A few wood screws later.... fab.  I should have taken a photo of it before Red put it back in the tree -- because it's camouflaged so well it nearly doesn't show up in the photo!  Can you see it?

Owl Shacks!

I got the owl houses built!  My neighbor came over and we built one for each of us, and installed them:

My owl house in the big pecan tree out front

I found the plans online courtesy of Shaw Creek Bird Supply.  You may view the plans here:  http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/plans_screech_owl.htm. 

The boxes were very easy to build, and the cost was about $20 per box; it was a fun project.  My neighbor had so much fun with it she wants us to start a business making and selling them --  I so don't have time for that!  It was fun to have someone share my enthusiasm for the project though.

She is going to go buy the cedar shavings today; I've read you are supposed to put 3 inches of shavings inside the box.  I've read conflicting information on how high to hang the boxes and which direction to face them, so we'll see how these do.  We hung them facing North/Northwest as suggested by Shaw Bird Supply. 

After additional research, I think I'll give it a light coating of paint with a sponge to camouflauge the box; apparently that helps with predators.  I've also read you can rub some paraffin on it to discourage bees.  Hmmm.  The good news is, everything I've read seems to say the same thing about house size so it appears we got that part right.  And most everyone calls them owl shacks.  I like that...

Owl Houses

I am laughing even as I type this -- partly because it's just like me to come up with another mildly nutty idea, and partly because I truly have no time to take on a new project, however small.

That being said, my lastest plan is to build one or two owl houses.  Uh huh.  Owls.  Specifically, Eastern Screech Owl houses, because I think that is the type of owls we have in our neighborhood.



I mean, how cute is this guy?  I'd love to count him as a resident in my yard!

When I had my lake property, one of the first things I did was put up a bat house.  Do you know how many flying bugs they eat an hour?  It's insane.  But I've moved on from bats -- I'm on to owls.  Rodent catching owls.  Ohhh yes, my pretty!

I've looked up owl house construction plans online (you've gotta love the internet) and they look unbelievably simple.  I mean, it will probably just take about 5 minutes.  Looking at the plans, it appears that all I need is an 8 foot 1"x 10", a hinge, some wire, and some cedar shavings.  I have all of that...well wait, I guess cedar mulch probably doesn't count...