Bird Box Clean Out

This past week, Lee Pauser and I cleaned out all of the large bird boxes on the course.  When I say we, I really mean Lee cleaned them out. It was something like 8 barn owl boxes and 4 American kestrel boxes.  This year in particular seemed especially dirty.  When I say dirty, I mean full of small rodents discarded in the form of pellets by the barn owls.  If you’ve been to Cinnabar this year, you know the small rodent population is abundant.   

While out cleaning the boxes, we were discussing the addition of 2 or 3 barn owl boxes.  Cinnabar is a great location for barn owls and the more the merrier in my eyes.  

Why We Love Our Owls

Last week our birder, Lee Pauser, put up a camera to watch the owl box that has 7 owlets inside.  He grabbed some amazing photos of why we started this program two years back.  You'll see the hen bringing in either a gopher, mole or vole on three separate occasions.

Despite the help from the owls, my gopher guy's have caught 1,100 exactly year to date.  We are experiencing the worst rodent season by far.  Maybe it is time to get the gopher tunnel blaster!

Barn Owl Video at Cinnabar Hills

Our resident bird expert, Lee Pauser, has collected another great video (could only work it in IE) of our newest owlets at Cinnabar Hills.  Lee pointed out to me to pay attention to the sound because you can barely see the owlets under the hen, but I noticed something completely different.  I saw about 5 pellets as the camera entered the box and at least three fresh gophers sitting in front of the hen.  That is 8 less gophers I need to be worrying about and I am sure there will be more.  We do have another hen on eggs and those eggs should be hatching in the next week or two.