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From: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: A Home for an Owl
Message-ID: <14388@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 28 Feb 90 20:10:39 GMT
References: <0w97k21@unify.uucp>
Reply-To: pmd@cbnews.ATT.COM (Paul Dubuc)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 74


    Sandra Macika suggested that I keep all of you posted on what's happening
with the owl in our yard.  I will do that.  Nothing much has happend yet.
"Hoover" (our name for the owl) is still there in the tree.  Since I
posted the original article, I've received some very good advice from
several people, been in touch with a couple of people from local wildlife
organizations, and done some reading about owls.
    I decided to call the city tree service to see if they will hold
off cutting the tree down for at least a year.  They said they would send
an inspector out.  Once they've marked a tree for cutting (they paint
blue dot on the trunk), they are liable for any hazard posed by the
tree.  The tree is still mostly alive, so I'm hoping right now that they
will agree to put off cutting it down.  I haven't heard from them yet.
    I'd like to put up an owl house in one of my other trees (some people have
sent me dimensions for making one), but I don't hold much hope for this owl
of moving into it.  Maybe for future owls ... but it's more likely to be used
by squirrels than an owl.  A local shop that specializes in bird homes has
some owl houses made of cedar.  Is that a good wood to use?

In article <0w97k21@unify.uucp> grp@unify.uucp (Greg Pasquariello) writes:

}Try and keep the city away for a while.  This is the beginning of nesting
}season, and it won't be long before the owl has a brood.  It may well have
}a clutch of eggs already, although it's early.
}
}Owls often use crevices and holes as roosts as well as nest sites, so it
}may not be a nest.  But with spring approaching, why take the chance?

One person I talked to was woman who runs an organization which takes care
of injured wildlife.  She said that screech owls nest in April or May.  (The
great horned owls are nesting now, though).  I've read that screech owls get
very quiet and secretive when nesting and this one is not quiet.  We hear it
almost every night.  Most of the time, I find it sitting in this tree hole
(about 15 feet off the ground), though on a couple of evenings I've heard
it on my large white pine in the back yard.  Neighbors have said that they've
heard it in their yards also.  (It's a pleasant sound, I think; a vibrating
note, not a screech--although I've read that they do make a screeching
sound sometimes.  It seems content to sing like this even while I stand
under the tree watching it.)  It is getting close and I expecially do not
want them cutting the tree down then.  If the city refuses to spare the
tree, she suggested that I insist them cutting it when I'm there so they
don't cut into the nest.  I could possibly move the section of the tree
with the nest into another tree and hope the owl continues to care for the
young.  She didn't sound too hopeful about trying to "fight City Hall" about
saving the tree, but I did get the names of some people to call if it comes
to that.


}BTW: Screech owls are probably much more common in your area than you 
}think, even if you live in a city.  In residential and suburban areas,
}they are typically one of the most common raptors, although you would
}never guess it.  I had many screech owls near my home in NJ, and it was
}years (15+) before I saw one that I didn't have to go looking for.

Well I've been living in this part of the city for 8 years and this is
the first I can remember even hearing one at night, but I'm sure you
are right.  I've been hearing this one for several weeks (since early
December, I think) but I didn't actually see it until 2 weeks ago when
a neighbor told us where it was.  During the day, it often sits in the
hole with its head out, eyes almost shut.  It mimics the tree so well
that, even then, it's very hard to see.  I haven't caught it out flying
around yet.  I hear dawn and dusk are the best times for that.

}Another owl fairly common in residential areas is the great-horned.
}If you have any red-tailed hawks nearby, you probably also have
}great-horned owls.

Now that would be really something!  Might cut down on the number of
pesty cats running around the yard. ;-)
-- 
Paul Dubuc   |   "If a man would live well, let him fetch his last day
att!asr1!pmd |   to him, and make it always his company-keeper."
	     |   				John Bunyan
	     |