Owl Box Update

By Dee Fairbanks Simpson

On Monday, November 14, I began my training on how to monitor the SCAS Owl boxes. As you may recall, after a generous donation from member Gail Jackson Kruetzman, Space Coast Audubon built and installed seven barn owl boxes at the Lake Apopka Restoration Area.

While waiting for the rest of the expedition party to arrive, I saw Shrike, Killdeer, Cattle Egrets, and a Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher. Then, at 9:00 a.m., Maria Zondervan, Brice Merritt and I were joined by Richard Poole and Christine Brown, and we set off to see the owls. As we were departing, a fellow from the water management district stopped by and informed us that the previous day, 109 Bald Eagles were counted, just with the restoration area! We set out with high hopes; if not owls, we were almost guaranteed to see an eagle or two.

We drove to our first owl box, located on Lust road. Maria showed me how to assemble the (very expensive and fragile -- ugh!) camera, and how to raise the pole to the owl box. As delicately as one can lift a camera on a 20 foot pole, I raised the camera, and just as it reached the opening of the box, a large and rather ticked off Barn Owl flew out, apparently displeased by the unwelcome intrusion of a camera in her living room! I quickly apologized to her, feeling somewhat like the paparazzi stalking a movie star.

After re-angling the camera and determining that there were no additional owls in the box, we moved on to the pump house box. Not only was there another adult owl in this box, we were also delighted to find seven eggs! Two-for-two, and we were just beginning.

Our next stop was the Bass Sod Farm, but on the way, we took a detour through the heart of the restoration area. We were treated to the sight of many Eagles, Hawks, Cowgrets, and Herons. The most exciting moment was when a Northern Harrier attempted to take a Tricolor Heron. The Heron, however, would have none of that; he just kept moving down the bank, looking at the hawk as if to say, "Quit it, jerk!" Eventually, the Harrier gave up, and although I'm sure neither the Harrier nor the Heron would agree, I thought it was quite entertaining to behold. But I digress; the owl box at this stop held one more adult and five eggs, bringing us up to three for three now.

Our next stop was on Jones road. Once again (four for four) we were greeted by an angry adult owl, but as I scanned the inside of the box, there were five... no, wait, six? seven? eggs. Hmm... it took me a minute to focus, but then I realized that there were seven eggs, two of which were hatching as we watched! This was by far the coolest moment of the trip, and probably in the top ten of my entire life. It truly felt like all of our hard work on this project paid off in that one moment when the baby owl poked his head out of his shell to greet the world for the first time.

Not wanting to further disturb the momma bird, we removed the camera and moved onto Ranch road, where we found yet another adult and four more eggs, for a total of five adults, 20 eggs, and two hatchlings. We visited our last two boxes, which did not have any birds in them, but showed signs of birds having been there (feathers, scat, pellets, empty boxes of "Rodent Helper".)

So, I finished up the day with 12 species of birds, new knowledge of how to use a camera on a pole, and a good feeling that our owl box project is a success!

Follow up: On December 21, as part of the Zellwood Christmas bird count, I, accompanied by Matthew Cole of the St. JohnÕs Water Management, re-checked our boxes. Unfortunately, then news was not quite as good as the previous check. Of the 22 eggs found in November, we only had 5 fledglings, one of whom appeared to be quite ill. We saw 2 live adult owls, and one dead adult in a box. The good news is that we have 4 new eggs. Also, the four healthy fledglings were quite beautiful, and Matthew and I enjoyed watching them watch the camera. I will be going back to monitor again in February and will report more at that time.