Virginia Barn Owl Intervention
Currently many barn owls nesting in Virginia are facing problems that call for some type of creative intervention. The two most common problems are barn owls choosing to nest in a silo that the farmer will be using for silage in the near future or when barn owls nest in a structure that is slated for demolition.
If the barn owls are nesting in a silo that is to be filled with silage and the farmer finds eggs, we are currently unable to mitigate this situation. However, if the eggs have hatched our first choice is to move the young owls into a nest box installed in that silo above the highest level of silage. Alternatively we can transfer these owls into a nesting box located in an adjacent barn or retired silo. If neither of the above solutions is possible we can take the young and place them in other barn owl nest sites to be raised by foster parents.
In a situation where the young are in a structure to be demolished we can move the eggs or young into a nest box that we erect inside a nearby barn or other structure. If there is no suitable structure nearby for a nest box we can foster the young owls into other barn owl nests.
We have a large enough database on nesting barn owls at the present time to be able to find suitable foster nests in cases where owlets have lost their nest site for any reason.
"An Intervention Story"
Over 40 years ago Lance Morrow went to band barn owls in an old square top silo in the midst of the Shenandoah Valley. Upon arriving at the farm Lance was greeted by the excited landowner. The first thing the landowner said, "You got here just in time to get the baby owls out of the silo before we tear it down." Yes, the silo was in deplorable condition as it was among the oldest silos in the Shenandoah Valley. It was one of the wooden plank silos with a framed square wooden top. These wood silos and square tops have long ago been replaced with many new and varied styles of silos, mostly concrete silos with round metal roofs. Barn owls havebeen nesting in this old type of silo because the square top on the round silo means there are four high, safe and flat areas in the corners of the top to lay eggs and raise young.
Lance climbed the silo and took home four young barn owls who went to good homes and educated many many people about this wonderful wild species.
In early 2009 while we (Lance and Jill) were surveying the silos within the Northern Shenandoah Valley Barn Owl study area, Lance happened to glance down into the valley where this old wooden silo was to have been torn down 40+ years ago. He thought that he saw the top of the silo so we went closer to check it out. When we drove around the barn that was blocking our view of the silo we were shocked to find it still standing despite the fact that the farmer had managed to put a gigantic hole in the center of the silo. In spite of the dangerous condition of the silo, Lance climbed up and saw the female barn owl in a threat posture - suggesting she was nesting in one of the corners! We left her alone and came back to band the young owls on June 7th. Finally, after 40 or so years, they had gotten around to demolishing the silo. We came around the barn to see the silo was completely gone and the barn wall where the silo had been attached had recently been patched. The top of the silo was lying on the ground in a crumpled heap. We were sure the owlets had been destroyed.
We skeptically peered into to top and were joyfully
surprised to see a corner of the silo top packed with fluffy young barn
owls. We found out later that the demolition crew had seen the female
owl up in the corner with her young and they had carefully lifted the
silo top, baby owls and all, off with a crane and gently set it on the
ground. Demolition day had been June 1st which meant the young
barn owls had been surviving on the ground inside what was left of
their silo top for several nights. To see the owls still alive was in itself wonderful
since raccoons, fox, dogs and other predators had easy access to these
approximately 3-4 week old owls.
They were very healthy and we banded them but had a bit of a problem because the owls shrank back from us
backwards and tried to crawl down into the back corner where they would have become
inaccessible and possibly would've died. So, Jill had to lie down and snake her
hand around to keep the young from falling backwards during banding
activities.
One of the five young had died but it appeared to have moved itself out from under the structure and died of exposure to cold rain. We'd recently had two days of steady rain and found that owl's body just outside the silo top.
We left the banded owls in the top of the silo in its same position on the ground wondering what their fate might be. Lance wanted to keep tabs on them so visited them two days later. The demolition crew was back to finish the job! They informed Lance they were going to dismantle the top today! Lance rushed back home, gathered Jill and, more important, a nest box and tools to install it. We rushed back over and installed the nest box inside the barn high on the wall. The mother owl had been used the barn as a roosting site and we saw her fly out of the barn window that day so we knew she was present. After the nest box was secured we carefully moved the four owlets into it, with the certainty the parents would be able to easily find and feed them.
A couple days later we checked and found the young healthy and hissing inside the nest box we'd provided.
A success story!*******************************************************************************
"Another Intervention Story"
Back in the early 70s Lance was attending the University of Texas. A part of his scholarship with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Audubon Society was that Lance was to perform raptor rehabilitation for South Texas. A big problem came every fall when deer hunters went to their elevated deer blinds to prepare for the coming deer hunting season. Most hunters simply threw the young barn owls onto the ground where they died. After a while some hunters found out about Lance's rehab program and would leave a box of young owls at the doorstep of the University's Biology Department. Luckily for Lance a couple years previously the Audubon Society, in association with the University, had constructed and placed in swampy settings several Fulvous tree duck boxes. The lucky part was that barn owls readily took to the tree duck boxes.
One particular tree duck box held a nest of barn owls consisting of two babies. One day Lance gave this family two more young owls. A couple days later, when he had another box of baby owls to pass around, he stopped by this box and gave it two more owls - taking the total to six babies. Thank goodness the adults couldn't count. When this particular picture was taken the box already held 6 young, 4 of which were foster babies. The adults were doing such a good job with the six of them that Lance gave them one more. They all fledged.
See - another success story!
There are so many ways to creatively keep barn owls out in the wild. We just have to learn what we, as stewards of the land, can get away with.