Building an owl house
I like owls. I always have.
There are so many reasons to be fascinated about owls. For example, did you know that
- Owls has special flight feathers that makes them almost silent?
- That they can swivel their heads around (how cool is'nt that?) is commonly known, but that they can do the same with their toes too?
- Their eares are asymmetrical to make them better to pinpoint the location of sounds in multiple dimensions?
- Their eyes are acually tubes rather than eyebolls?
- ...
The list goes on. But none of these things is the reason to why I built an owl house. I live on the countryside, but so do the mice.
The main reason to build an owl house is that they are excellent predators. A single owl can eat up to five mice a night, that's far more than I catch in my mousetraps.
So the mouse population will hopefully be reduced to the upcoming winter.
Owls in my area
I've observed at least two types of owls in my area, it is Tawny owls (most common) and Long-eared owls. The Tawny owls is the one I've seen most of, but I hear them both at the night.
As I know that there are plenty of Tawny owls in my area, I'm going to design the owl house ofter their preferences.
Here is the Long-eared owl:
And the Tawny owl:
The owl house
The design
So, what does the Tany owl prefer regarding their houses?
After collecting information from several sources I can summarize it to that they are not that picky at all. The house should not be too small, around 25x25x75cm is a good size and the set height should be between 3 and 10m.
The entrance hole could be either round or square, around 16x16cm is good.
So pretty much everything that can fit an owl will work. With those restictions in mind, me and my friend started to build the house. This is what we came up with:
Not the prettiest thing, but as I said - the owls are not picky... and neither are we.
The result
Now the owl house is mounted, ready for owls to move in.
Owls usually looking for a new nest in the late autumn, so the house will probably stay empty for a while.
The entrance hole is towards the house, so I can observe any activity from my working room.
