Great-horned Owl Fun in 2019

[Don 27]

Yes the seasons plays a big part in what the birds are eating. Also they have a good idea of when mating season is according to their food amount. Remember my hen that I referred to as being vary experienced . Well she went broody so I put hatching eggs under her hopping for a good hatch. But the eggs never hatched and you can blame FedEx for that. She had her own eggs under her when I put the shipped eggs under her. So I removed her eggs because I didn't want them hatching earlier than the shipped eggs. Her eggs were already partly developed so I placed them in the incubator. And had a 100% percentage hatch rate. But sadly after she discovered the shipped eggs were dead she got off the nest and I tried giving her the chicks but she never excepted them.

I was looking forward to seeing her teach the chicks how to survive.

I did a test one night I took a broom stick and climbed the tree she was roosting in and bumped her with the broom stick.she took to the air and landed in a tree 40 ft away. So I walked over to that tree and bumped her again .she took to the air and this time landed in a near by hay field. And hunkered down in the hay. I couldn't find her after that.

Amazing! I never thought chickens would do that growing up.

 

[Don 27]

Student doing effort for scholarship and academic credit. Harder part is making sense of the data. I hope to have her present results somewhere. What she is doing is well outside what literature deals with when raising chickens.

Some of my barn birds get a good amount of feed each day and they do not range near as far.

That's what I discovered as well . I have layers and when the feeder runs out witch doesn't happen often but when it does they fly over the electric fence and begin foraging with the birds that are in a truly free range setting.

 

[Don 27]

here's a picture of the wilder birds.

 

[centrarchid]

Great-horned Owl did not come in after carcass last night. As far as I can tell owl did not come in at all. My dog with pups doing all of eating on carcass now and she consume about 3 lbs overnight even with access to two deer carcasses about 75 yards away.

The Red Fox came into range of camera even when dogs are out. Dogs move back and forth across property like a paint brush leaving areas not guarded for a bit. The Red Fox is very good at moving in quitely to check things out before dogs come back. With such incursions the Red Fox seldom gets close enough to pens where chickens can see it. If chickens see fox, they give alarm and dogs respond by running quickly back.

 

[Howard E]

Just for clarification, the purpose of all this is for scientific observation and documentation, and no attempt is being made to capture or harm the owls?

Or the fox?

 

[centrarchid]

Just for clarification, the purpose of all this is for scientific observation and documentation, and no attempt is being made to capture or harm the owls?

Or the fox?

The owls have been watched for years now. Most observations not even reported. The fun stuff is.

No catching or harming owls. Once owl suspected to be culprit, the live-traps are are disabled. Only one owl was captured with a trap and it was released, to come back the following night. That may be the same owl I am messing with now. Both owls show little to no fear of me and even appear to follow me around as I close up pens when after dark.

The fox is not causing troubles and not a regular visitor based on cameras. If it were to get problematic, then fox would be targeted for an unpleasant ending.

At some point I want to get owl to walk over white poster board after stepping in paint so I have pictures of tracks. The owls walk on ground a lot and may be leaving tracks I see but do not readily distinguish from chickens.

On the whole not a lot of science in this, just messing around. Science part is restricted to use of the dog proof traps which does not impact owls.

Today a serious upgrade will be made to barn that will keep owls out. Red Foxes already blocked from barn even when fence knocked out by power failure. Slowly, innovations are made to pens making so chickens safe at night even when predators get past outer perimeters. We already to point where Red Fox will not dig to get at chickens.

 

[centrarchid]

Half of owl proof gate installed on back of barn. Gate is 12 feet tall and having issue with wind. A lot of work needs to be expended to keep gate secure.

 

[centrarchid]

There may be two type of owls working area. Great-horned Owl causes a stir with Mocking Birds every evening where the latter does the rapid chaw-chaw warning when the owl comes in. I can often see the owl when it flies to top of tree to sit and watch me. Maybe the moron is sizing me up as a meal?

Closer to barn is a similar disturbance caused by someone working bamboo and other dense vegetation where hundreds of small songbirds flock to every night. Who ever that is appears to fly, gets in the thick of the vegetation, and does not come up where I can see it. Mocking Birds produce same chaw-chaw warning call for it. Maybe a Screech Owl.

I have a lot of Mocking Birds and Cardinals. A lot of fruit stock piled by vegetation providing exceptional cover. Other bird species fly in from some distance away every evening and are very noisy. They are very quite when leaving in the morning.

 

[centrarchid]

Owl back and dogs, especially my male are barking at it like crazy. I has a pattern of visitation that does not correspond to availability of eats here. When female with pups goes outside, she runs to base of tree where owl is located to bark. Owl not phased by dogs, but does not like me walking in its direction more than 50 feet before is retreats. It is scared of humans.

Owl pulled a food item off platform and tried to drag it across road. Female dog with pups stole the owl's booty.

 

[centrarchid]

Owl kept coming back multiple times over night. Last time sky was just starting to get orange along eastern horizon. Owl was alarming penned cocks along roadway between house and barn. One free-range hen was perching in a very vulnerable position and like the cocks posturing like chickens do when they see something like an owl under low light levels. Owl was perched on power line about 120 feet away. I think owl is actually after carcass dog stole earlier in the night. Dog had eaten all except hind quarters of a nearly 6 lb rooster.

Every time owl comes in, especially when dogs hear alarms produced by chickens, dogs go out to run off owl. Owl has not yet challenged upgrades to barn intended to keep the owl out. There are still modest gaps in upgrades where I have a camera positioned to watch.

Owl out there again with Mocking Bird sounding alarm just outside window.