Screech owl visitor
A few days ago I looked up and noticed a screech owl hanging out in the door of our owl box. First sighting of the season!
At this time of year, males are scouting for nesting sites, and perhaps that’s what this little guy was doing, when not snoozing away the afternoon.
I haven’t seen him again since then, but I’m hopeful I will. Perhaps the missus has been checking it out too. This box has seen a lot of healthy owlets, and it’s ready for a new family.
__________________________
Digging Deeper
Need design help with your yard? Hire me as your personal garden coach! Maybe you need replacement plant ideas after the big freeze. Or maybe your landscaping has grown tired, and you want fresh curb appeal. Or perhaps you’re ready to get rid of some lawn and create a pollinator garden, bird habitat, or hangout space for you and your friends. I’m here to help! Contact me to let me know what’s going on, and let’s figure it out together. My range is Austin and suburbs within a 25-min. drive of NW Austin, but I’m flexible and can travel farther with a surcharge, so let me know where you are. Weekday morning appts. only.
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I hope a nesting pair decides to move in, Pam. I enjoy seeing the owlets!
Me too, Kris! My fingers are tightly crossed.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful photography. Love seeing that peppery brown face! Spring’s coming!
My pleasure, Jan!
This tells me that spring is on its way. It is always fun to get your Screech owl updates.
I’m ready!
Hi, Pam! A friend of mine just noticed squirrels in her screech owl box to her dismay… I noticed that your nesting box has some metal cladding & a piece above it–I’m guessing to discourage squirrels. Can you give any advice on how you added that, where you got it, or anything else I can pass along? Thank you so much!
For as long as we’ve had our owl box — 10 or 12 years — we’ve seen squirrels use it off and on. Usually we’d see a squirrel in it right before owl nesting season, and then suddenly the squirrel would be “evicted” and an owl would take up residence. We figured the owls had it all figured out. But then one year a squirrel that seemed to be ill — it staggered and had no balance when moving around — moved in and stayed put. Eventually it did move on, but too late for owl season.
So we ended up wrapping the box in galvanized sheet metal we bought at one of the big box stores. We used heavy-duty metal snips to cut pieces to size and screwed them on with short screws (so they didn’t poke through inside the box), then painted the whole thing brown to help the box blend into the trees. It seems to work. Squirrels could, I’m sure, acrobatically get into the box. But it’s hard for them to get a good grip on the metal cladding, and they don’t really try.
Hope that helps!
Also, the cut edges and corners of sheet metal are sharp, so I advise your friend to be careful when working with it, and round off edges to keep owls from getting injured when accessing the house.
Oh, this is so helpful & educational! I’m so grateful–thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
How delightful! As many birds as we see around here, I’ve never seen an owl. Wonder why? There’s a wetland right down the road, so we see a wide variety of birds from there.
Screech owls are tree-canopy hunters, so they nest in areas with plentiful trees. But I’m sure other kinds of owls like varying habitats. I bet they’re around, Robin!
We had a screech owl in our nesting box for about 6 weeks. It would pop out day and night. I was able to get good pictures of the cutie. We haven’t seen it for about a week now. Any idea why? We did have 4 owlets last year and were hoping to see more this season.
It could be that the chicks have grown larger, and the female has moved out of the box and is watching from a nearby tree, along with the male. It could also be that something went wrong, and she’s left the nest. Hopefully that’s not the case!
Watch from a distance at dusk to see if any owls fly into the box. If so, they’re feeding the chicks. As the chicks grow, they should start peeking out of the hole. In my experience they leave the nest around Memorial Day, but one time I saw chicks leave in early June.
Lucky you to have owlets last year — and hopefully this year!