Befriending a tawny owl

[monkeyrepublic]

Last night, for the second night running, I heard a tawny owl hooting outside my bedroom window - almost certainly in the trees in my garden. I've always wanted a resident owl!

Now, the question is - well, the first question is probably why now, when for the last six years I've hardly heard a hoot outside the woods (a little over 100 metres away, as the crow flies)? But the second question is, what should I do to encourage it to visit?

Should I put raw meat up a tree? I can't do that every night and don't really want it there during the day - we'd be overrun with corvids.

[Billabong Karen]

I've been hearing them all around the house as well, calling back and forth to each other from the garden over to the woods. Dont ever remember hearing so many before. I'm not doing anything to encourage them - at least, not intentionally. I know that feeding the birds has been encouraging woodmice and voles, because I've seen them - and presumably this is making the garden more attractive to owls.

[monkeyrepublic]

Thanks, Karen. That's good thinking. I'm quite sure my (now well-established) log pile and (still un-inhabited) hedgehog house are encouraging rodents. This probably explains the owl coming closer to human habitation. Makes me suspect that, come the spring, it'll retreat back into the woods whatever I do.

However, I really thought this would be a popular thread. I thought there'd be tawny owl tales aplenty from WABbers who lay out mouse fillets nightly.

Ah well, I'll just enjoy the hoots while they last.

[Dogghound]

Hard to explain the exact cause of your recent observations however it could be due to habitats maturing and becoming more suitable for nesting or more suitable for prey species. Tawny owls are widespread and quite stable in populations, with slight fluctuations locally. The mild winter has probably increased survivorship of birds which could effect how vocal a bird is (they increase the number of calls in higher densities) or actually mean more are around. They often use traditional territories and it could be that you have overlooked them or they have started using a different area to call from/roost in. There are very few areas of woodland which don't have tawny owls in Britain. Certainly locally to me the population is saturated and the same territories have been used for several years now, with very little change.

Calling at this time of year is to be expected as it is roughly the start of the breeding season and some birds will already be on eggs, perhaps even have nestlings. Usually egg laying begins around mid to late February, around this time they stop calling. Late autumn around November is definitely the best time to hear tawny owls as they establish territories and mates.

Throwing chunks of meat to tawny owls is unlikely to make any difference to them and they probably won't touch it. They very rarely (recorded in some individuals) take dead mice, they (especially the young) would eat dead mice if you put it in the nest cavity, they don't like meat without fur attached (as with other owls). This is perhaps pointless anyway because if they are already breeding then there will be plenty of food around. Tawny owls often don't breed when food is in short supply, but remain sedentary and stay in their territory. Your best bet is to put up a nest box, although again if already present they tend to be very loyal to existing nest sites, which they can use over many years. Still worth a try putting up a box, it may make another territory suitable. Alternatively attracting prey like woodmice and bank voles would be good for the owl through habitat improvements like refugia rather than feeding. Tawny owls particularly in urban/sub-urban/villages feed on large numbers of birds (upto half the diet or more), they take these whilst they are roosting. However I am not sure it would be ideal to try to tempt tawny owls to catch roosting birds (through roost creation) but in fact managing a healthy ecosystem as best you can, should keep predators and prey happy.

[monkeyrepublic]

Smashing! Thanks, Dogghound. I'll look into an owl house. Not sure we've enough tree cover to make a good site. In any case, my wife will be relieved you've stopped me decorating our wild cherry with chicken giblets.