It has been a bit of a hiatus, but we have installed new batteries and are back to monitoring the boxes. This Spring, we got help from the Village of Glencoe. A big THANK YOU to the Village for helping us maintain the houses! We completed our Spring "check in" for owls. Nothing right now. Our owl resident from last year has moved on. Houses were filled with lots of sticks and leaves, most likely done by squirrels. We were hoping a new owl would take up residency for mating purposes, which begins in February. Some Owl mating facts: Mating occurs February through March. Eggs are laid in April. The female will lay eggs at two-day intervals. Average clutch size is four. 26 days to incubate. 31 days for babies to fledge. Have a single brood but will renest if clutch doesn't take. I ...
Last Friday we checked on the houses, and in one of the owl ones there is a nest of European starlings. This is along with a nest in the American Kestrel house. Although the birds aren't what we were hoping for, we will let them stay for now because we aren't sure if they have laid eggs yet and just out of respect for the birds. After walking the park several times, we did find an owl pellet. Not sure what species produced this but evidence that owls are in the area! I pulled it apart using two sticks. I have circled in blue the undigested bone fragments from this meal! We also gave the houses an upgrade. We added branches to the exterior of the houses to give our potential residents a place to roost. BEFORE: AFTER UPGRADE: