Have a small owl perching on or near my home at night. Is there any type of enclosure I could build that would encourage him to stay? Allow him to be more comfortable aroynd us? I light him up with a maglight for about 5 minutes and it didnt phase him, but I wouldnt mind a little encouragement.

Tree with a hole in it is what I always heard

I cut that piece of **** cottonwood down a year ago. Have been splitting it the last few weeks.

And make that two small owls.

And if anyone in dallas is bored and has an upright towable splitter... hahaa

Did you know that some owls aren't that wise?

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FS guide I expext you to be down tomorrrow f4om that high allen perch. Im sure you find my address. Start with my dpspsb record and then dcad it.... wait, you know the drill....

Agree with CB, tootsie pops...

Google "screech owl box" and you can buy or build one. Place it in your yard and they will move in readily. Very tolerant of people and like living in town. Have had them in my yard for decades. Fun to have around.

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http://i.imgur.com/VTWWSBk.jpg

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one... two-who-who... three!

Nothing will wake you up in the morning like an owl scrambling out of your blind at 5:30 am when you open the door.

Yep, build him a Screech Owl House. Built one out of rough cedar at our last house. Had one living it in within a few months. Make sure you get the dimensions right and make it cozy (no leaks) and a detachable roof so you can clean it out occasionally. I put a few handfuls leaves and grass in there to get him started. Also, you need the right tree/post to mount it to. They like to be up 12-14ft or so, and need a semi open tree to fly into and out of.Really cool to have around

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Nothing will wake you up in the morning like an owl scrambling out of your blind at 5:30 am when you open the door.

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I was going to suggest building an elevated deer blind in your backyard.

Put a door on the tree and build a cat house next to it...

Whatcha-ley lechuza wero. Esta muerte

El lechuza te chinga.

To keep an owl around you have to put what you LEAST want sh*t on right where you want him to stay. He will spend his whole day going around eating vermin and cooking them in his gut for the sole purpose of bringing it back and drizzling that nasty white owl sh*t dall down your most prize possession.

I've never had any problem with exact dimensions on a nest box. Growing up near Ft. Hood, we were always buying surplus wooden ammo boxes for 25-50 cents a piece. The army recycles most of them now days. We used a variety of mortar, artillery, and rocket boxes for all kinds of projects including owl boxes. They were different sizes & shapes. We built nest boxes generally using a bow saw to make a couple of parallel cuts about 3 inches apart and about 3 inches deep then knocked the middle out with a hammer to create an entrance. Screech owls, squirrels, ringtails, and other things used the boxes for nesting and shelter. The most used owl box we had at that time was only about 20 feet from the front door of our house & about 8 feet high sitting flat on a horizontal limb of a big pecan tree. This house was used constantly for nesting and as a day roost out of the nesting season. It seemed there was always an owl in that box. I'm sure there are some sort of min/max dimensions out there but I haven't found them yet. The owls I've had around were not picky, just glad to have a cavity available.The quickest occupancy I ever had of a box was about four hours. A friend called & said he had a "baby" owl sitting in a tree in his yard for the last several days. It was not a time of year babies would have been around so I told him it was a screech owl, and I had an extra nest box if he wanted it. He did so we put it up about four that afternoon. At about eight that evening he called excitedly to tell me that he was watching the owl sit in the doorway of the box while he and his kids watched from their patio.There are always more owls that trees with suitable nest cavities so these owls respond pretty quickly at times. The biggest problem with the boxes is that squirrels find them attractive as well. When a squirrel moves into a box, I generally take action to remove the squirrel from the area. A live trap, a little corn, and a pellet rifle at very short range work well in town.Screech owls are small and won't leave the volume of white wash as barn owls in south Texas tower stands. I have never had a problem with screech owls making a mess. Most of the time you will never know they are there. I have a little homemade pond with waterfall and the owls use it for water and bathing. Just something else to watch them do in the yard.

I'll swear the above post had paragraphs when I posted it. Now I gotta figure out how to edit with this newer format........

Seriously it is probably Lechuza. You have wronged someone and now they have called upon Lechuza to kill you. Prepare your will.

Now you'll have to find a curandero to remove the hex.

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I've never had any problem with exact dimensions on a nest box. Growing up near Ft. Hood, we were always buying surplus wooden ammo boxes for 25-50 cents a piece. The army recycles most of them now days. We used a variety of mortar, artillery, and rocket boxes for all kinds of projects including owl boxes. They were different sizes & shapes. We built nest boxes generally using a bow saw to make a couple of parallel cuts about 3 inches apart and about 3 inches deep then knocked the middle out with a hammer to create an entrance. Screech owls, squirrels, ringtails, and other things used the boxes for nesting and shelter. The most used owl box we had at that time was only about 20 feet from the front door of our house & about 8 feet high sitting flat on a horizontal limb of a big pecan tree. This house was used constantly for nesting and as a day roost out of the nesting season. It seemed there was always an owl in that box. I'm sure there are some sort of min/max dimensions out there but I haven't found them yet. The owls I've had around were not picky, just glad to have a cavity available.The quickest occupancy I ever had of a box was about four hours. A friend called & said he had a "baby" owl sitting in a tree in his yard for the last several days. It was not a time of year babies would have been around so I told him it was a screech owl, and I had an extra nest box if he wanted it. He did so we put it up about four that afternoon. At about eight that evening he called excitedly to tell me that he was watching the owl sit in the doorway of the box while he and his kids watched from their patio.There are always more owls that trees with suitable nest cavities so these owls respond pretty quickly at times. The biggest problem with the boxes is that squirrels find them attractive as well. When a squirrel moves into a box, I generally take action to remove the squirrel from the area. A live trap, a little corn, and a pellet rifle at very short range work well in town.Screech owls are small and won't leave the volume of white wash as barn owls in south Texas tower stands. I have never had a problem with screech owls making a mess. Most of the time you will never know they are there. I have a little homemade pond with waterfall and the owls use it for water and bathing. Just something else to watch them do in the yard.

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