[Closed] Barn Owl Boxes - Anyone built one and attracted an Owl?

has anyone had success in attracting and Owl

I built an 16ft x 12ft shed in horrible december weather once. I built it as fast as I could because all the crap that was supposed to be in the shed was in my house instead - so I was motivated. Ran out of wood when I was cladding it so had to leave a small gap above the door. But it was water tight enough so chucked everything in there and forgot about til the summer.

The first time I saw a real live barn owl was the next time I opened the door when it came screaming out and almost him me in the face. Everything inside was covered in owl shit 🙂

This could only be a mcmoonter thread. Could spot it from outer space

I put one up in 2002. It has been empty ever since. The last time I saw barn owls here in any numbers was during the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2001.

Perfect timing Mr Moont - we're just thinking of adding one to a stable block next to a chunk of woodland. We stuck a tawny owl box up in the woods last year and monitored it with a wildlife cam, had one chick reared successfully this spring and a tree creeper nest in the gap between the owl box and the oak its on.

Yup, got one at the bottom of Mum's garden in the wood.
She's had one living there for a couple of years now..

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Brilliant stuff!

Think one trick is to put a bit of bedding in the box, it doesn't have to be very fancy, as they naturally take over other bird's nests regardless whether they were using it or not.

We have just put two into a barm conversion. It's not yet finished so owls won't turn up but they are still around. There are some key aspects to location such as height and clear flight path to the box. I think the barn owl trust has all that info but if not I'm sure a local ecologist would give you some advice.

We have a hooter living somewhere close to us. Drives me up the wall some nights with its twit twooing.

Would like to make a box though.

Psycho that'll be a tawny, or a pair if you're hearing a twit and a twoo. Barn owls sound like an angry cat.

We have a hooter living somewhere close to us. Drives me up the wall some nights with its twit twooing.

Thanks purist, its was awesome the first time I heard it, just wears thin after a while. We have a huge hawthorn hedge next to the house and always wondered if it perches there of a night.

I've several times had to lean out of the bedroom window and shout at the bastard little owl that sits on the telephone pole to make it shut up. Joys of living in the country

We have a tawny near us and I can't ever imagine tiring of hearing it! It's not been as active this year which is a shame, it may have moved.

We have a little owl in the vicinity too but I have seen that rather than beard it.

We have a screeching owl that wakes us up during the night.
Little darling.
Again the joys of living near woodland.

We have an indoor box in the barn we use as the timber store. Was initially occupied, but left around about when we had to move it to create a bat roost as mitigation for consolidating and re-roofing the listed grain drier that was about to collapse in. Owl now seems to be resident in the grain drier building, bats are back in the basement. Owl box now occupied by crows that use the timber store as flight nursery.

Inspired by your responses I built an indoor box using the Barn Owl Trust plans.

I think I'll try an outdoor one too. Or should that be twit twoooo?

Right, off to get it hung up before it gets dark

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That looks brilliant.

Put one up in a perfect location 6 months ago.....still waiting for an owl!

No box, but this year a barn owl family moved in to our barn via an old dovecot entrance and raised 2 owlets. Wonderful to see them ghosting in and out at twilight and may try and put a camera up there over winter.

Nice work. Turns out our stable block isn't really suitable (according to barn owl trust anyway) so we're going to build an outdoor one. We were scoping out suitable trees today.

I had a quiet afternoon so thought I'd have a go at an outdoor Owl box too loosely styled on the Barn Owl Trust plans. I have some left over zinc with which to cap the roof and some corrugated tin to weather proof the sides.

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Ooooh how exciting.
A local farmer put one up above his yard. It attracted a barn owl in the same year.

Please keep us posted, I love owls.

We have a few barn owls where i live in West Norfolk, when i ride into work about 6am, one will follow my path, but always breaks off at the same field boundary.

My wife's aunt and uncle own a big farm here and rescue owls, i remember going into there big farm house kitchen once and feeling eyes on the back of my head, and they had a barn owl with a broken wing in a peg bag hanging near the Aga to keep warm, happy as larry and just watching people as they came in and out

I only had an hour or so this afternoon. I've clad the roof and sides in reclaimed zinc and corrugated tin.

I need to make some sort of bracket to fix it to a tree, seal it all up and paint it.

I have some bitumous paint, once it has dried its pretty odourless. Do you think it would freak an Owl?

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oh ffs mc, only you would style an owl box 🙂

class

We used sadolin on the tawny box, outside only of course, and that didn't seem to bother them. Remember to stick some old leaves and twigs inside, they don't want it too fresh. )(awaits moonters picture of an artisan mini log pile artfully arranged inside the owl box)

A bit of drainage on the landing tray or is it so they can wash their feet?

All very good but without a roost pirch to land on they are likely to go elswhere.
The floor inside needs to be a foot down inside to avoid the young fledging too early .
They all need to be mounted easterly facing away from setting sun and a clear view to view would be a good idea as you dont want any squirrels getting in as well.

A volunteer at a barn owl trust

curtains
Keep out the drafts and stop the nosey neighbours peering in
Its what every self respecing midddle class Barn Owl box is rocking these days, in paisley .

I just see an upright piano carcass

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Now who do we know that is the resident stw curtain maker?

I gave it a coat of paint and hauled it high into a Beech tree. I've cleared away any branches that may impede their flight path. It's south east facing and it overlooks a wild garden, some grassland and some woods. I'd like to be able to see them come and go from the studio.

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Is that an echium in the 2nd pic? They never grew well here.

Is that an echium in the 2nd pic? They never grew well here.

Yes, they seem to grow better outside at 600 feet in a gale than they do in the greenhouse.

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Over the weekend I made a field stone and quarry chip path.

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A friend who is a professional wildlife photographer is building me an owl box - he has quite a bit of experience nesting barn owls but I'm aiming for tawneys. I can put you in touch if you want to pick his brains...

The biggest problem I'm going to have is dissuading jackdaws from using the box, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

I've just finished building a nesting habitat for kingfishers, so I'm nervously awaiting next March to find out if they're going to use it...
🙂

So we weren't quite as quick as McMoonter but at last it's up - cobbled together from some ply, and old chest of drawers and some pond liner to finish the roof

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That's a great looking Owl box.

I asked the guys at my local RSPB reserve when I might expect to an Owl looking to nest, they said March.

I hear a mix of Barn and Tawny Owls among the trees and Yew hedges here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed to attract a pair.

Cheers Mr Moont - this one is hopefully for barn owls, it looks out over this

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Which we know is pretty good for voles shrews and meeces so with any luck it'll be occupied. We've got a tawny box at the far end of the woods at the bottom of the slope, it was occupied last year and they reared 1 chick. They've already been back this year (we have a trail camera monitoring it at the moment)

I tried to attract an owl into my garden a few years back with a box, and also playing the mating calls of a female owl over a speaker, but with no luck. In the end I got a visit from the Barn Owl Trust to inspect the location and give me some advice. Their conclusion was that the problem had been unseasonable weather with too much rainfall for them to consider pairing off and setting up in nesting boxes.

I never knew it could be too wet to woo.

Nice work from people but its much about the habitat and weather their is enough food to sustain a breeding pair.
Eg 7 voles and mice each a night

"I never knew it could be too wet to woo."

LOL!

"applause"

I tried to attract an owl into my garden a few years back with a box, and also playing the mating calls of a female owl over a speaker, but with no luck. In the end I got a visit from the Barn Owl Trust to inspect the location and give me some advice. Their conclusion was that the problem had been unseasonable weather with too much rainfall for them to consider pairing off and setting up in nesting boxes.

I never knew it could be too wet to woo.

That deserves some kind of formal recognition, perhaps an OBE.

We've got tawnys back in the same box they were in last year, one definitely resident in the box and the other bringing mice and what looks like small birds in. No signs of occupation at the barn owl box though, but we don't have a camera on that so you never know....

In a bid to make the landing approach a bit easier, I finished this holzhausen this morning.

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This was the other night pre holzhausen with a nice sunset.

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We've got a nest in our barn owl box!

A wasps nest 🙁

How big's that hole in the box mcmoonter? looks a tad small from here. (North Yorkshire)

I used the plans from the barn owl trust website. Maybe Scottish owls are bigger?

So yesterday morning we found this on the ground under our owl box.

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Gutted.

Oh no!

How sad.

so sad.  any idea of the cause?

No obvious injury and there was blood on the beak and talons so it might have eaten something that was poisoned - we've been in touch with the local wildlife place to see if there's any use for a dead barn owl.

Oh that's really sad. Let's hope that it just died of old age..... all these birds have to die some time but you rarely see them.

Oh, that's dreadful.

There was a piece in the paper the other day about owls eating mice and rats that had been killed using poison. The rodents eat the poison which is still poison when the owls eat them.

In a bid to make our box more appealing, I cut up shreds of woolly jumpers and popped them in the box. Last week a swatch of pink was lying below the box. Perhaps they didn't like the colour, but I'm hopeful that there's at least a butch Owl thinking of moving in.

That is always sad to see, re poisoning rodenticides  are often based on anti coagulants which cause internal bleeding to such a  degree the animal dies, as does any predator which consumes it. Blood on the beak may be evidence of this. Often the skin has a blue colour as the casualty has suffered massive internal bleeding. Its really shit the careless use of such poisons.

That's horrible, when i used to commute bu bike last year to and from work here in West Norfolk, i used to have a barn owl that would regularly fly alongside pretty much, always braking off at the same field boundary, it did this for nearly 8 months, i then saw it dead in the road having been struck by a vehicle, normally things like that wash over me, but having to get up at 5am to cycle to work was bad enough and seeing the barn owl once or twice a week used to be a little lift.

On the flipside, the first time i met my wife's aunt and uncle who run a big farm, i walked into their big kitchen and could feel eyes in the back of my head, i turned round to see a large barn owl in a peg bag hanging above the Aga, it had a broken wing and they put in their to restrict it and were nursing it back to health.

For info we've found the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme who will send a prepaid box & specimen bag for you to send the owl/hawk to them.

http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/

They'll then investigate the cause of death and take some other samples from the bird, and let you know their findings if you choose.

We've got the post mortem results for the dead barn owl we found under the box.  Apparently a juvenile female, in decent condition but with haemmoraging of heart and lungs/respiratory tract.  I guess the good news is that it didn't starve due to the cold weather so that means there's enough prey for them in the local area.

Over the last 10 years, I must have made 50 or more for a mate in Scotland who works in forestry, only one has so far remained unoccupied, but, its only been sited for 18 months.

Bummer on two fronts - the dead owl; but also I see an owl thread and leap in to tell my shit owl joke only to find this is a thread resurrection and I've already told it. So, double sad 🙁

Shame theotherjohnv, this thread could do with two wits

Missed this thread. Sad news re the Barn Owl. such beautiful birds.

My parents have been putting up Barn Owl boxes all around Kent, they were even on BBC South East last week doing it and talking through the ins and outs of it all.

We've just put up a Tawny box, have a few around here. Although much quieter this year than last. I have been warned if checking a Tawny box to wear eye protection, as they are quite vicious! Apparently a famous naturalist lost an eye while checking a box.

mcmoonter - do you not have any short or long eared owls? I think Lothians/Stirling/Fife/Perthshire has a good few?

I used to love watching the short eared owls at work or on way home in summer evenings...

I have been warned if checking a Tawny box to wear eye protection

I've worn a chainsaw helmet when checking mine, but now have a £20 USB endoscope camera thingy that I can put on the end of a cane and check inside, plus you can grab shots of whatever's in there while you're at it.

Apparently a famous naturalist lost an eye while checking a box.

That will be my wife's grandfather you're thinking of there, Eric Hosking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hosking

A turning point in Hosking's career came through an accident which happened on 12 May 1937. Returning to a tawny owl photographic hide late at night, he was struck in the face by the owl, its claw penetrating his left eye. The resulting infection meant choosing between losing one eye or probably going blind. The eye was removed and the ensuing publicity appeared in all the national newspapers, where his photographs were already in great demand. As soon as he was fit he returned to the hide to continue taking pictures.

My box is still unoccupied. We do have Tawny and Barn Owls nesting amongst my covered wood piles though

i stumbled across a dead mature Tawny Owl about a month ago on the margin between our woods and an open field. It looked pristine, no sign of any trauma. I wonder if has eaten something that had been poisoned.

We see owls regularly on fence posts on open farm land. They are harder to see  amongst our trees

Any mice or rats we catch in traps we pop on the wood shed roofs, they are never left there for long. Someone is keen on a ready meal

Im still optimistic that one will make a home in the box

i stumbled across a dead mature Tawny Owl about a month ago

If you find any more stick em in the freezer and contact the PBMS (linked above) who will send you a box to return it in.  They'll investigate cause of death as they did for ours and send you a copy of the results.