A few residents in Woodside Village decided it would be great if we could attract owls back to Woodside. An appeal was sent out for cash to have owl boxes placed in certain areas in trees on the perimeter of the village. A gentleman from Pretoria, can't remember his name, came and gave us a talk on how owls would benefit us by keeping the rodent population at bay.
Two owl boxes were eventually placed.One to attract Eagle Owls in the Cork Oak tree near the entrance of Woodside and the other for Barn Owls somewhere on the Berm.While it is lovely to have squirrels in residence here they decided that the Eagle Owl box was the perfect home for them and proceeded to stuff the box with their nesting material of leaves and twigs. I am not sure how the Barn Owl box has fared, I can only see the one in the Cork Oak tree. I do know now though that there are Barn Owls around here as I often hear them at night.
It is a pity that Rattex is used to keep the rat population at bay as I fear that an owl devouring a rat that has consumed the poison would probably kill the owl as well as domestic cats around here. There is an owl friendly type of poison for rats but it is very expensive to use.
Do the boxes for the eagle owls and barn owls look the same?
ReplyDeleteLyn