Has anybody in this area ever put up an owl box?
We often hear the owls at night on the farm, occasionally we see them too, then it can go quiet for a time and we’d hear no owls. It would be wonderful if we could encourage them to breed in the area – more owls will eat more mice and rats… of the latter we seem to have an unending supply, judging by the rate our 2 cats bring them in.
Putting up owl boxes can be a trying thing. The boxes stay unoccupied for ages, eventually one just despairs and stops paying attention. Next thing, an owl pair moves in…
The thing about owl boxes is apparently that once an owl takes occupancy of a box, they’d return to it again and again: “nest site fidelity” is the term used by those in the know. It also means that the offspring of an owl pair making use of an owl box will look for a similar box in the area – “natal recognition” is the formal term this time.
The implications are this: if we start putting up owl boxes in the area and all use the same plan to construct the boxes, more and more owls will quickly start using them, because the boxes would feel “right” to them. As long as we know that it’s unlikely to be occupied during the first breeding season the boxes are put up, more likely you’d wait 2 years before the first owl family breeds in a given box. But once they’ve started, they will return to their box again and again, often raising 2 to 3 clutches in a single breeding season.
|
|
We saw this owl during the day on the Skaapplaas hiking trail. I think it's the Cape eagle owl. We've not often seen or heard Barn owls (Nonnetjies uil) in the area. |
The owl breeding season is busiest during July, August & September, and could run until the end of November. We can start putting up boxes now, so that by next year’s breeding season the boxes are “naturalized” and part of the environment.
Plans to build Owl boxes to follow – anybody interested?
