Waiting For Dinner
We live in a semi rural area of eastern San Diego county, and there are a lot of rodents and small animals like mice, rat, gophers and rabbits that tend to eat things we try to grow. A little over two years ago I had an owl house installed on our property in the hopes that a pair of Barn Owls would move in, raise young owls, and eat all of the rodents on our property.
Astonishingly, this plan has been very successful, and within ten days of installing the owl house a pair of owls moved in and in a relatively short time hatched and raised a pair of young Barn Owls. It turns out that a family of four barn owls can consume well over one thousand rodents a year. I've seen estimates that a mature Barn Owl can consume 500 - 1000 rodents in the course of a year. All I know, is that I haven't seen a single gopher mound on our property in the last two years. Prior to the owls, its was a constant battle, that I was losing. What really hurt was when my favorite apricot tree was killed years ago. I really don't like gophers. What was an unexpected bonus, was how much my wife and I have enjoyed having the owls around. They are beautiful, and majestic birds. We get a lot of pleasure from sitting out and watching the young owls in the evening.
After the young owls have hatched and reached a certain age, the parents move out of the house, and only return after dusk when they drop off food for the young owls. The picture above, taken tonight, shows our young owls standing in the doorway of their house waiting for food to be delivered. The owls only hunt after dark, and this time of year the days are long here, and the young owls haven't eaten in over fourteen hours, and they are hungry. A hungry young owl is a loud screeching owl, and they stand in the doorway screeching "Feed Me" in owl talk all night long. Fortunately for them, the parents are reliable, and deliver, but the young owls are impatient. If you're ever thinking of having an owl house put in, do NOT put it near your bedroom window. This is the third year that two Barn Owls have been hatched and raised in our owl house. A total of six rodent eating BarnOwls have been born and raised here. We're so proud.
The first year we had the owls, I didn't use my flash at all to take pictures of them. I was afraid it would scare them off. It turns out that Barn Owls are pretty habituated to living around humans and can tolerate our noise and our lights. Last year I took a few pictures using strobes, and tonight, for the first time this year, I took a few pictures using my strobes. These owls are still quite young and still have their nesting down, and not their flight feathers. I don't think these two will be flying for a couple of weeks. I can't wait until they start flying, as it's really fun to watch. I took a few other pictures tonight, and will be posting a few more tomorrow. Stay tuned.
The curved stick that you see in front of the doorway is an old hickory walking cane, and makes a wonderful perch.
Strobist info: Put a bare YN560-II on a light stand camera left, and a bare YN560 on a light stand camera right. Both strobes in manual, and slave mode were triggered by the pop up flash on my D90.
I have all of my owl pictures in my Barn Owl set which can be seen here. www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157630045851110/...
Waiting For Dinner
We live in a semi rural area of eastern San Diego county, and there are a lot of rodents and small animals like mice, rat, gophers and rabbits that tend to eat things we try to grow. A little over two years ago I had an owl house installed on our property in the hopes that a pair of Barn Owls would move in, raise young owls, and eat all of the rodents on our property.
Astonishingly, this plan has been very successful, and within ten days of installing the owl house a pair of owls moved in and in a relatively short time hatched and raised a pair of young Barn Owls. It turns out that a family of four barn owls can consume well over one thousand rodents a year. I've seen estimates that a mature Barn Owl can consume 500 - 1000 rodents in the course of a year. All I know, is that I haven't seen a single gopher mound on our property in the last two years. Prior to the owls, its was a constant battle, that I was losing. What really hurt was when my favorite apricot tree was killed years ago. I really don't like gophers. What was an unexpected bonus, was how much my wife and I have enjoyed having the owls around. They are beautiful, and majestic birds. We get a lot of pleasure from sitting out and watching the young owls in the evening.
After the young owls have hatched and reached a certain age, the parents move out of the house, and only return after dusk when they drop off food for the young owls. The picture above, taken tonight, shows our young owls standing in the doorway of their house waiting for food to be delivered. The owls only hunt after dark, and this time of year the days are long here, and the young owls haven't eaten in over fourteen hours, and they are hungry. A hungry young owl is a loud screeching owl, and they stand in the doorway screeching "Feed Me" in owl talk all night long. Fortunately for them, the parents are reliable, and deliver, but the young owls are impatient. If you're ever thinking of having an owl house put in, do NOT put it near your bedroom window. This is the third year that two Barn Owls have been hatched and raised in our owl house. A total of six rodent eating BarnOwls have been born and raised here. We're so proud.
The first year we had the owls, I didn't use my flash at all to take pictures of them. I was afraid it would scare them off. It turns out that Barn Owls are pretty habituated to living around humans and can tolerate our noise and our lights. Last year I took a few pictures using strobes, and tonight, for the first time this year, I took a few pictures using my strobes. These owls are still quite young and still have their nesting down, and not their flight feathers. I don't think these two will be flying for a couple of weeks. I can't wait until they start flying, as it's really fun to watch. I took a few other pictures tonight, and will be posting a few more tomorrow. Stay tuned.
The curved stick that you see in front of the doorway is an old hickory walking cane, and makes a wonderful perch.
Strobist info: Put a bare YN560-II on a light stand camera left, and a bare YN560 on a light stand camera right. Both strobes in manual, and slave mode were triggered by the pop up flash on my D90.
I have all of my owl pictures in my Barn Owl set which can be seen here. www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157630045851110/...