I’ve never heard anything about owls and bats NOT coexisting, but then I’ve never heard anything to the effect that they do, either.
Re the box, they’ll find it if they’re looking in the loft (where they’d be looking anyway) for a nest site. I would be careful with the bank barn–while it’s got a better ceiling height, if the bats are already in there they might just take over the box as they like dark hidey-holes, too!
As far as martin houses go, the one thing you need to know is to actually get martins, as opposed to wrens or English sparrows, to take them, is they need a lot of open space around them. Martins ideally like having a big open meadow to fly through. For bugs, I would also put up boxes to encourage tree swallows and bluebirds.
Thanks! I’ll look into the houses for the different birds. I’ve been googling owl information. There are a few non profit orgs out there- I’ll email them and ask about co-existence with bats and take their advice on owl house placement… Thanks again!!
The other night I was putting one of the horses out and as I walked back to the barn I saw that beautiful, graceful creature glide into the barn. I really was wanting to identify what kind of owl he was for sure so I snuck to the edge of the barn door and sure enough, it’s a barn owl.
He/She is so magnificent!! I couldn’t believe how tall and proud he/she looked perched on top of one of the stall dividers. We watched each other for a minute and then it flew off. His/her wing span is huge!
I’m just glad he/she let me see him/her for a moment and maybe next time I’ll be able to get some pictures.
I have been keeping the barn close up lately to keep the chickens out of it (they are SO messy) and because it’s been nice enough for the horses to stay out in pasture but I’m going to have to break down and keep the doors open. I want to put a box up for him/her as well.
I’ve read through all these threads with a “birder’s” interest. Curious to know if the observed owl was actually a barn owl as most of them prefer a quiet, non-peopled barn loft. They are so shy that to see one in the daytime is very rare unless it was startled from where it was roosting. They are too small as noted by others here to take a cat, nor would they try, since it’s not on their menu. Young owls commonly starve to death in their first winter if they can’t find their usual diet due to prolonged snow or rain making their hunting efforts hopeless. I have two “owl stories” for those who think a one pound screech owl is a wuss, and a GH owl doesn’t dine on cats. About 25 years when I moved to my farm I was getting over run with pidgeons in my bank barn loft. I tried closing up the barn but they would find their way back in no matter what I did. Finally I started to live trap them. When I would have more them half caught and stuffed in bunny hutches (about 20 birds) I put them all in boxes (re-catching them out of the bunny hutches was worth a funniest home video prize) and I drove them about 10 miles away to where I knew other pidgeons lived at an underpass on a highway…thought they’d like it there with their own kind. Sad to say, they beat me home. When I drove up my driveway, there they were on my barn roof…all of them! That winter I went in the loft one night to toss down hay bales when I heard the clicking of a screech owl. I quickly closed the big barn door to the bank then went looking for my visitor. Found him perched on top of a very dead, but bigger than him, pidgeon. I had a “let nature take it’s course” solution to my pidgeons. I kept the little guy trapped in my barn for several weeks and feed the pidgeons cracked corn and made sure there was water. He killed and ate about ten pidgeons. I’d find his “pellets” but seldom saw him. He’d click away at me from the rafters if I wandered too close to him. I finally opened the big barn door one day and the surviving pidgeons took off for a safer home, never returning. Don’t know how soon the owl escaped to the wild.
As for GH owls eating cats, I can’t say they all will, but I have personal experience with a suburban GH owl who took several cats a week while feeding it’s babies. I had a neighbor whose back deck was under a large hemlock tree. Land near her was once open fields and a tree nursery, but had become a large housing development. In the tree over her deck, a GH owl was raising a family so she would find strange wild animal parts tossed out of the nest as well as the usual pellets. Then she started to find the cats. I stopped to see the worst of the cat bodies. It was a head with the spine more or less still attached. Seems like the mom found the housing development cats easy picking. There was about 6 cats that spring who fed the owls. Mom didn’t return to that nesting site after that but it was a gruesome spring on my friend’s deck. Ironically, most of the cats were black and white, and skunks are common meals for the GH owl.
But I breed Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, so when I have a litter of puppies, they are NOT permitted outside when dusk begins approaching - until they are at least 3 months old. We have seen several Great Horned in this area and I don’t want to risk it!
I don’t know what this forum has to do with owls but I saw a few posts on owls so I thought I’d give it a try. A baby barn owl fell into my yard. No mother. It is doing fine. Question: Can I keep it? If not how do I get a permit to do so? I’m all for keeping and raising it. I will see what it costs to keep it. If it is going to be too expensive I’d rather give it up sooner than later. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. F.W.N. California
no legally you cannot. contact a wildlife rehab. You can contact fish and wildlife to find a rehabber near you, Sadly many owls get rodent poisoning and if is the case for this bird there is no time to loose
Call your game warden where you are.
They generally work out of the sheriff’s office, call them.
The game warden will tell you what to do.
Our vet is certified for wildlife.
He gets plenty of those to work with, with some rehabbers he directs.
Check with your vet also for directions.
Growing up in Europe in the mountains, as a little kid we found two owlets and raised them.
We even took them with us to a play day in school, for everyone to learn about them.
Our father made an owl house and hung it high up in a pine tree.
We put them there once old enough and they did fine.
One came back every year to raise their young there.
Owls are very interesting, you will enjoy having been part of helping this one.
We have 2 barred owls here. They are so used to my presence, they will let you walk up to them. I heard screaming one night and went running over because I saw something “fall” out of the tree. The owl had plucked a squirrel right out of the tree and taken it to the ground. It did not abandon its prey even with me standing over it. It was dark and I was practically leaning over it trying to see what it was.
The pair of hawks hunt the same territory by day. They hang out with the horses and will let you ride fairly close to them. Beautiful birds.
I do wish we had fox squirrels - I love fox squirrels. I suppose squirrels just aren’t compatible with birds of prey. We used to have tons of squirrels. Not anymore!
A few years ago we had an invasion of the big brown norwegian rats.
We had the fattest hawks and owls in this planet.
They were so fat, they could hardly fly.
This one day a hawk was in the road on something.
I expected it to fly away as I was getting closer, but when it finally did, it didn’t really fly away fast enough, I didn’t slow enough and hit it.
It got wedged on my brushgard and when I finally could stop and got out to see about it, it looked dead.
I pulled it off the brushgard and it came alive and was scrambling mad, so I let it go.
It hopped into some weeds and stood there, staring at me.
I checked on it later and it had flown high up into a highline pole and seemed fine.
That was the most beautiful bird, when I was pulling it off, carefully, I could see his underneath was a white down with a faint tan to it and sprinkled on it little dark brown specks.
The cover bluish feathers were full of optical brighteners, the colors themselves seemed alive.
Are you absolutely SURE the owlet is not a fledgling and supposed to be out of its nest? They will have feathers but still have down and cannot fly yet and it will still be fed by its parents. They are extremely vulnerable at this age but it is nature’s way. Before involving wildlife rehab, I would try to make certain it is not just a fledgling. The wildlife rehab people should know. (And as others have said, no you cannot raise it yourself.)
