Early Season Bird Activity

American kestrel eggs

Our "bird man" Lee Pauser has been out recently and he's noted a lot of bird activity this season.  It's probably more like normal years of bird activity, but the drought has had its impact on the birds too and their activity has been down the last couple of years.  Lee reports that "5 of the 8 barn owl boxes have barn owl activity. Of the 5 active boxes, 3 have hens on eggs, and the other 2 have roosting hens".  Lee also shared a picture of two American kestrel eggs in one of the boxes.  It took a few years to get kestrel activity, but they finally seem to be here.  

Bird of a Different Tune

After listening to a seminar by Dr. John Kaminski (plant pathologist) of Penn State University and being totally inspired, I have decided to join Twitter.  I vowed that I would never do it, but it can get my blog out there and I am going to tackle my fear of social media.  You can follow me @bboyer925.

Has the Superintendent Gone KooKoo?

If you have seen the all of the bird houses on the course, you may certainly think I have gone Koo Koo. I have mentioned the bluebird houses already and now we have two larger boxes on the course. The largest box is for the American Barn Owl and the other is for North America's smallest hawk, the Kestrel. We have placed 8 American Barn Owl boxes on the course and another 6 kestrel boxes on the course.

Foreground: Kestrel box

Background: Barn Owl box

Close up of Barn Owl box

Both the Barn Owls and Kestrels are to help with our small rodent population. Particularly the moles, voles, gophers, and field mice. Last year was a year like no other for those particular rodents and I am doing everything I can to help control them this year. This 'organic' method of control has gained popularity in the wine country to help protect the vineyards from these harmful critters. For them it makes money on both sides of the budget; it is a cheap effective way of controlling pests and helps make them organic which attracts a lot of revenue.

We should start to see the Barn Owls to move into their boxes in the next month. The question has been asked by many, "how will they know to come?". One member suggested a mass email and after a good laugh I explained to them what Lee Pauser had told me. The birds are always looking for a cavity. That cavity could be in an old tree or it could be something artificial like our boxes. The cavity provides protection from other predators. Will there be 100% occupancy; I doubt it, but over time maybe we will gain a reputation of being a bird retreat.

Bluebirds

Driving through the Mountain course, you may have noticed that we have some new bird boxes hanging in some of our trees. Those bird boxes are a new addition this year and they are to house bluebirds. Everything you want to know about bluebirds can be found at this website. The specific benefit for our golf course is that they eat the beetles that eventually molt into grubs that we have on the golf course.

Grubs make our life in maintenance very difficult. In the summertime, they chew the roots off of the grass plant making it very difficult to keep alive. More often than not, the grass succumbs to grubs. If the grass survives the summer, it will only be destroyed in the fall when the raccoons, skunks, and wild pigs come out to eat.

Our bluebird boxes are an environmental approach to ailing our grub problems. Is it the be all, end all; absolutely not. Is it another tool that could help us; absolutely!

Thank you to PJ Kaner, Superintendent at Santa Teresa Golf Club for introducing me to Lee Pauser. Mr. Pauser is a bird enthusiast who is helping with the bluebirds and another interesting project that will be blogged about at another time. Thanks Lee!