When a Great Horned Owl attacks the Cage

KathyF · Wed Jun 14, 2017 9:14 pm

...in this case, she flies away, empty "handed".

This was the last time for which I have video of the Great Horned Owl attacking my colony - back on 5/23. The cages won't STOP an attack, but they will PREVENT the owl from being as successful as she normally would, without the cages.
One martin did flush on the opposite side, but was able to get away before the owl spotted him/her.
This rack is 100% full with 24 pair.
#Owl-0; Cages- 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymK-PMr ... e=youtu.be

John A Green Jr · Thu Jun 15, 2017 10:50 am

Kathy,
Thanks for posting the video. It is a real reminder of what goes on in the middle of the night. I have cages up on all my racks now and my worry level has went way down. I also have a camera system on my racks but haven't seen anything yet like you had. Thanks again for your help and insight earlier in the season, it helped me a lot.

Dave Duit · Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:12 pm

Hi Cathy,
For those with an owl cage, it may be a good idea to add a solid floor below the cage because owls will and do enter from below.

KathyF · Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:54 pm

Dave Duit wrote:Hi Cathy,
For those with an owl cage, it may be a good idea to add a solid floor below the cage because owls will and do enter from below.

Hi Dave,
I've been worried that she may figure that out some day, but so far, she hasn't. One of the concerns about adding any protection under the gourd rack is I'm afraid that would slow down the martins when a hawk is coming through.
One of the things I did last year was create a 'skirt' of light weight twine, spaced out about 10-12" around the edges of the cage. I attached each piece of twine to a 'holder' around the gourd rack, creating a 'webbed' bottom. The bottom of the cage doesn't have to be solid, the openings in it just have to be small enough that an GHO can't get through with her wings spread from beneath. And with lightweight twine, she runs the risk of getting entangled in it. I don't know yet if I'm going to do that this year or not (I was really worried about waking up on morning and finding her hanging there and being faced with, "now what" when figuring out how to get her out of it

- I'm monitoring with an overall colony camera to see how she's attacking and keeping my fingers crossed.

KathyF · Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:57 pm

John A Green Jr wrote:Kathy,
Thanks for posting the video. It is a real reminder of what goes on in the middle of the night. I have cages up on all my racks now and my worry level has went way down. I also have a camera system on my racks but haven't seen anything yet like you had. Thanks again for your help and insight earlier in the season, it helped me a lot.

Hi John,
I was thinking about you the other day and wondering how your colony was doing! I'm so glad to hear you and your colony are doing much better! I'm only offering 75 cavities this year (down from 84) and I now have 73 pair! So far, so good this year!

Dave Duit · Fri Jun 16, 2017 6:16 pm

I like your idea with the twine. I think you are correct in that the floor doesn't need to be solid. It works well with my set up; I suspend the floor with wires from the bottom row of the gourd rack and it lowers and raises easy when I do weekly nest checks. I had to put in a floor when the GHO figured out he could simply fly under the cage and grab the gourds. One morning I noticed one of my gourds was turn 90 degrees, that is what made me decide to put the floor on. I use to have fencing underside to keep the owl out for one season, but it was a huge ordeal and hassle doing weekly check with a fence floor. It tended to sag and I had difficulty holding up the floor with driveway markers.