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 ...
2/20/22 - Today I'm updating the post to say that we have now found and installed trail cameras next to each house. We decided not to put the cameras inside the houses because they were large and might intrude the nest, and they also needed sunlight because they were solar powered, so we placed each camera about ten feet from the nest with a good view of the entrance hole. A very generous donation from Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company. made buying the cameras possible so give a big "hoot" for them!