owl troubles advice welcome

[jonkertb]

the last three nights I watched an owl come and take up a perch near duskso I promply went out and made a fool of my self running, clapping, making crazy scare an owl sounds and ran it off. Last night I sat out till my none owl eyes could see anymore and went in....he came back last night too. left me with a broken sandy bunn entrance plate and some feathers.
I've got the starlings under control with SREH. My sparrow trapping is working well. Coons and possums leave via the havaheart trap so....what to do with dark vader?......I'm engineering wire guards as we speak but what else can be done? will he move on or is he now going to be a frequent flier here?
tom

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

If the owl ever catches a martin, it will keep coming back every night until it no longer can catch some martins. If it never is able to catch a martin, then it will give up after a few nights. My advice is to get that wire guard on the housing today! Don't delay because the owls have a great memory. Even if it don't catch anything now, it will be back throughout the season, checking to see if it catch a meal. Also, it will be more effective in catching the babies, especially when the compartment fills up with babies.

Another thing, the martins can hear their fellow martin scream when the owl will catch one, and if it happens often, the martins will abandon that site

[jonkertb]

Well, Emil....two healthy blisters later from cutting fencing with 2" by 4" weave. They all flew and watched yelling at me because it took quite a while....now they are just sitting on top looking....hope they figure out how to pass through it and sit tight when dark vader comes!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I am proud of you that you got it done so quickly..BTW, the blisters will leave....

[jonkertb]

Thanks Emil, the martins were making lots of noise tonight as they learned their new entry routine...took them awhile.....5 minutes ago I took a look and saw dark vader making a pass low over the water and land on my boat lift near 3 of my houses so.....I have a feeling the wires are going to get a workout tonight :>(

any other ideas to get him to leave....how about flood lights for a few nights?? will that help?

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I am currently trying something:

http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic ... ht=#150487

This idea of a hot wired decoy seems to me like a good idea. I had mine up for 3 nights, and I have not seen an owl or hawk. Maybe (hopefully) they sat on the decoy, got zapped, and left. Its too early to tell if this idea will work

I am nearly positive that the wires will work. Everyone that tried them say that they work good. I don't have a house so I have not tried them.

About flood lights, NO, they will not work. The reason a wire works is because the owl cannot reach the martins. The floodlights, or other lights, most of the time do not work. The owls simply get used to the lights and then they pay no attention to them. Many people have said that flood lights only work for 1.2, maybe a few nights, then the owls get accustomed to them and come and sit where they always sat.

Its funny, I am not a star wars viewer. I had to look up to see what a "dark vader" was. I guess its a fictional character

[ccarlin]

have you tried nite guard . they really work.. we had an owl problem two years ago . we installed nite guards and haven't had a problem since. before our owl attacks an owl would come eat june bugs under our security light right beside our house for hours. we haven't seen any owls since installing the nite guards.

[drdoo55]

I play music every nite from 9 pm to 5 am when I started having owl trouble and have not deen one since.Give iy atry and see what happens.Tony

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

About the fence charger, I have two wires on the decoya. There is one wire on one side of the decoys, the other wire is on the other side of the decoys. The wires go straight to the fence charger, one wire goes to one side of the charger, the other wire goes to the other side of the charger. I have not seen anything sit on it yet, but I have not seen any owls since I put it up. I have a new computer, and haven't figured out how to post a photo yet.

I have not tried music, I tried everything else

[Trishy]

I wouldn't take much stock in the niteguard lights. I have 3 set up 10 feet from my martin house. I looked out about a half an hour ago and saw the silhouette of an owl on top of my martin house. I ran out in bare feet and chased it off of the house and he flew behind our house and there was another barred owl. This will be a long night.

[ccarlin]

the best place to put the niteguards are on top of the houses or gourd racks. ten feet seems too far. we have our nite guards attached to the top of our houses.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

The nite guard lights were 2ft above the perch, and the barred owl was sitting on the perch, which is 2ft under the nite guard lights. I think that they work good on the GHO, but not the Barred Owl.

[jonkertb]

having studied the reviews by game farm users I'm not ready to buy the night guards....seems they were more effective on migrating hawks. You can google that info....I do think the music has some merit in confusing the hearing of the owl as those rascal martins don't just go to bed and go to sleep.......llike naughty kids they chit chat at all hours of the night LOL
mine are still slow to navigate the new owl guards but some just go through as if it wasnt there so I guess the others will catch on...just like learning the SREH....no damage or feather evidence the last two nights with the guards :>)

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Thanks for the excellent feedback, no feathers sounds good to me. I think that the wire is an excellent method for stopping owls.

I have such large gourd racks, it would be hard to make a wire cage large enough, and I can't weld. Its difficult to get somebody here to do something like that, it would be quite expensive to have a cage made by someone else.