Barn Owl WC772

Last Summer I did a test of my neighbors Barn Owl box at their request.   They have about four acres where they raise chickens and grow Macadamia Nuts and Avocados with maybe 100 trees. These Owls have been using this box for many years, and are very acclimated to human presence.  First the Owls had six chicks, but a swarm of bees moved in and killed them all and then built a hive in the box.  So I put on the Bee suit, and took the box down and cleaned out the hive.  Spraying the inside top of the box lightly with WD-40 was enough to get the bees to move out without killing them, and didn't affect the use of the box by the Owls.   The Owls immediately re-nested, and this time had a brood of three young.

The camera is set up using a 12 foot tall tripod and a home made motion trigger (same one that I used for the Bats.)  The first Rat was caught at 10:00 PM, and at exactly 12:00 PM Mom stopped hunting.  In those 2 hours 4 huge rats and 19 mice were caught.  This is one of the unlucky ones.  My neighbor also tries to trap the rats and mice, but in a day might only catch one or two.    This series of photos convinced them to build better perches in the areas where the mice and rats congregate, and not to waste time with trapping.  Also, this is a good example of why we shouldn't use poisons on the farm.   

Since the Summer they have raised and fledged another brood, and are thinking about the next batch....

D800
70-200mm @ 86mm
1/200
iso 400
f16
multi flash / high speed at 1/30,000 second