OWLS anyone?

[rrawhide]

Well, I lost a couple of roses to another @#%@$@#$ gopher and one more grape vine.


Then I remembered that I saw a 'owl box' on the www.purplegrinwinery.comwebsite in their vineyard tab.Went back and looked and sure enough he has a couple of owl boxes installed. SO, i started reading about owls and found that they are amazing creatures. One owl, supposedly, eats up to 2000 rodents a year. And, lo and behold, gophers are rodents too!!!


So, I now have an owl box installed looking over the new vineyard area and driveway. One owl can cover up to 20 acres. 'Build an owl box and they will come'. Only been up for a couple of days but we are still waiting. We hear owls at night feeding so we know that they are around.


Anyway, a couple of pictures for ya'll:

I took my plan from the following web address:


www.scvas.org/pdf/cbrp/BuildingBarnOwlBoxes.pdf


Check it out all - you will be pleasantly surprised what you learn about the 'barn owl'.


I also found our that lots of commercial vineyards in california have owl boxes.


Maybe they will help you too!


I mounted my box on a 4x4 post 12 feet high. Box has a 6x8 inch opening for the 'door'. Also, I put in approx 2" of hardwood mulch for ,hopefully, babies at some time in the future. It says do not face the door south so mine is facing SW.


enjoy!!


rrawhide


ps: spend some time in the Purple Grin website - he's the guy that built that great wine cave in his backyard.


pss: another idea was posed for a wine cave. Excavate a hole 10x30 ? and drop in a cargo container. Cover with dirt except for the door end. Add a vent and replace the steel double doors with a great looking wood door (with rounded top corners, of course) and you have a quick and releative inexpensive 'wine cave'. An idea I am considering.

 

[grapeman]

It is fun watching the wildlife interact with each other, such as the owls. At the Willsboro site, it is right next to the lake and the farm is a few hundred acres, so we get all kinds of wildlife.
The other day alone I saw 5 hen turkeys with their clutches so the group altogether was about 60 large. I saw some type of aquatic mammal that would come out of a culvert crossing a ditch full of water. I am not sure what it was, but it would appear and sit up. It may have been an otter, but it looked too small for that. Then there are the deer that feed right up to the edge of the vineyard in the middle of the day. Geese are widespread and tons of songbirds. I kept seeing flocks of them the other day zooming around after bugs. All of a sudden a small hawk fell out of the sky as one of the flocks went by. I thought the hawk must have been hurt, but then all of a sudden it flew a short distance with a songbird in it's talons!


Take some time everyone and enjoy the wildlife around you. You never know what you will see or learn.