Owl Tell You a Story...

Years ago I bought an owl house and mounted it about 15' up one of the 45' cedar elms in our front yard. Unfortunately, the only occupants it ever had were squirrels, which I spent untold hours chasing out of it. Finally, I figured our yard just wasn't attractive to owls so earlier this year I donated the owl house (and the never-occupied bat house I'd mounted on the chimney) to the White Rock Conservancy. Hopefully, the Conservancy was able to install both houses in locations where they are now being used.

But we do have owls in Hillridge!

Tonight, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a barred owl in one of the other trees in our front yard. The owl house we had was built for screech owls so it wouldn't have been big enough for a barred owl. But perhaps this one has a nest close enough that he or she will visit us again from time to time.

Click on the image to see enlarged.

Besides the photo, I took video. It's too dark to see anything but the audio is great. Listen closely and you'll hear another owl elsewhere in the neighborhood responding to this one. 

Update: Corrected to reflect what I saw/heard is a barred owl rather than a barn owl.

They're Back!!

Well, no video (at least not for now) but this past weekend I realized a Finch family was nesting on our porch. 

I had been expecting Mama Finch to use one of the other posts as that is where she nested last year but this time she's on the post closest to the front door. 

A small brood this time, just two eggs so far. It is possible she wasn't done yet though so I'll check again this weekend. 

Stay tuned!

 Meanwhile, in other news, no luck so far in having an owl family move in. The owl house I mounted on one of our Cedar Elm's last year is now home to a squirrel family. 

I had been shooing Mama Squirrel out of the owl house every few days in the first few months of this year and she seemed to have finally gotten the message. However, we were gone for a week and came home to find things sticking out of the entrance to the owl house and when I checked it turned out to be half full of sticks, grass, etc. More to the point, it was full of squirrel. 

I tried as I had in the past to shoo her out but this time not only would she not leave, she was very vocal. Given her change in behavior, I have to assume she already has a litter. 

Now, we wait. In about 10-12 weeks, her pups should be moved out at which time I'll clean out the owl house and close it up for a while. Maybe the next time I open it, an owl will get to it first. 

New Home for the Wildlife Part 2: Screech Owl House

Our newest project to make birds feel at home around our home is an owl house.   A little over 25 years ago, my sons and I built an owl house from plans we found (I don't recall the source - the Internet of today didn't really exist yet but I work in technology so it may have been an online source or we may have found something in the local library). We mounted it on a pole on our fence line in the back yard. The years went by and it never was occupied, whether by an owl or anything else. The neighborhood we lived in at the time didn't have a lot of large mature trees and though there was pasture land and woods just across Belt Line from us, for whatever reason the location we mounted the house never attracted any tenants.  In the late '90s, we moved to a new house, also in Mesquite. We took the owl house with us when we moved. However, being a brand new neighborhood, there were even fewer large trees. The years went by and when I ran across the owl house as I was cleaning out the garage one weekend, we decided it was time for it to go. Instead of tossing it in the trash, we took it down to the Trinity River Audubon Center, donating it in the hope that it would provide a good home for a screech owl or kestrel family somewhere along the river.  A little over two years ago, my wife and I downsized, moving to a house in the Hillridge neighborhood of East Dallas. Of the many things we love about the house and the neighborhood are the large, old trees. We have seven cedar elms on our lot, most of which are as old or older than the house (which was built in '64). This finally gave us a prime location to mount an owl house. I never could find a set of plans exactly like our first owl house but I found this one on Amazon that is very close to that design.  As the house needed to be 12-20 feet high, ideally facing south in a location with a clear flight path but also with plenty of limbs nearby for the parents to perch on, I mounted it on the tree furthest from our house at the edge of the driveway.  Stay tuned... hopefully within the next year we'll see screech owls take interest. If so, I'll share photos and video of our new "neighbors".