Making a home for the barred owl
Three of us representing local stores - Ron Brenneman, of Birds & Butterflies, Roger Brock and Tom Hill, both of Aiken Outdoors - went into Hitchcock Woods on Sunday afternoon, March 8 to check our three owl nest boxes, clean them out, put in clean cedar chips and do any maintenance to the boxes as required.
It was a beautiful day as we hiked into the woods.
You never know what you will see in the Woods and that proved to be true on our visit. Shortly after we entered, we saw a baby feral pig cross the path, probably trying to catch up with its mother.
Hitchcock Woods is a perfect place for owl boxes with its nearly 2,000 acres of woods and trails for animals of all kinds.
Aiken Outdoors placed these three owl boxes in Hitchcock Woods in 2004 hoping to attract barred owls. Barred owls (Strix varia) are rather large owls with an average adult length of 17 inches and wingspan of 44 inches and the owl gets its name "barred" from the vertical and horizontal stripes or streaks on the chest and abdomen.
It is the only typical owl of the Eastern United States that has brown eves; all others have yellow eyes. The head is round and lacks ear tufts. The upper parts are mottled grey-brown and the under parts are light with markings.
Since the barred owl's nest is often in a tree cavity, Aiken Outdoors placed these three owl boxes in Hitchcock Woods hoping to provide nesting sites for the barred owls. No luck so far, but each year the nature organization checks these owl boxes to make sure that they are ready for the elusive barred owls if they need them. One might think that the barred owls have been barred from the Woods, but we know that they are out there as we hear their call which sounds like "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all."
We'll make this same trip next year and one of these years we will find a barred owl nesting in one of our boxes instead of raccoons, squirrels and wasps. It's just a matter of time.