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Spring 2024 Clean Out and Update

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 ...
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Exciting News for the Garden's Owl Project!!!

While doing spring maintenance on the three owl houses, we found a screech owl nesting in the northern most house!  It took some time, but we FINALLY had success.  The purpose of putting up the owl houses was to introduce a natural based solution to the garden's vole problem.  As screech owls are predators of voles, our newest resident will help control this problem.    

Our next step is to adjust the camera settings to capture more activity....stay tuned!



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The above pictures are from the trail camera.  You can see the owl peeking out from the hole of the house.  Based on the time date on the pictures, it appears the owl begins peeking out around dusk, before starting to hunt.

Below are some pictures caught with a phone camera, just great!  And a much better close up of our feathered friend.  Based on the feather coloring, it appears to be a "gray morph".  Below are some Screech Owl facts from the Cornell Lab - All About Birds website:  


The link elaborates about size, shape, color patterns and behavior.  These owls don't really "screech".  They have a trilling or whinnying song which can be heard most easily during the Spring mating season.  








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