We’ve seen our local Barred Owl off and on over the years. We never thought too much about him (or her), but this year we are seeing him nearly everyday.

We have a lot of snow pack this year, so hunting for rodents has gotten a lot harder for the owls. He currently comes to sit in trees right on the edge of the yard watching for red squirrels and birds visiting the feeders. These owls will roost during the day on tree limbs, sitting close to the trunk of the tree. And because of their feather coloring, they blend right in. It takes a sharp eye to locate them.

So, a little bit about Barred Owls:

• Barred owls like old growth wooded areas, usually near a water source. We live in a large stand of red pines, not usually noted as one of their favorite types of trees, but here they are. In the summer I have water features available, and the river is only a couple hundred yards away.

• Their diet is live food: everything from mice to rabbits, birds up to grouse size, frogs and amphibians, and fish is they can catch them. Even insects. They swallow prey whole, and regurgitate pellets of undigested fur and bones.

• Like most owls they will hunt at night, but often hunt at dawn and dusk as well. Ours seems to be diurnal – awake during the day as well as at night. According to http://cornell lab of ornithology , barred owls will sometimes store a cache of food, prey that they caught, in branches or crook of a tree limb. They fly silently, no sound of theri wings flapping like other birds.

• Which is why they prefer old growth forests – because they need large trees and large holes. Barred owls nest in tree cavities, anyplace from 15-25 feet above ground. They will use man-made boxes mounted appropriately.

• Breeding season, depending on the latitude, is as early as January, and as late as into late April /early May. The female Barred owl sits on a clutch of eggs, 1-4 or 5 eggs, and the male will hunt and bring her food.

“Woodsy” (Give a hoot, don’t pollute!) keeps us entertained now. We are always looking every morning and off and one during the day trying to catch a glimpse of him in a tree. I’m forever calling out to my husband “Woodsy’s here!”. For Valentine’s Day, my husband took an old small discard table and turned it into a beautiful owl house. We mounted it on a tree the end of February, hoping that Woodsy might use it.

For a great tutorial on building a barred owl house, visit https://www.owlpages.com/download/Nest_Box_Plans_for_Barred_Owls_by_Michael_Cantwell.pdf

Yesterday, as I was watching out my office window, Woodsy was sitting quietly in a pine, watching the bird feeder, and WOW, a second Barred Owl swooped by, and they flew off together. Now won’t it be cool if they decide to use our owl nesting box right away! I’m so excited to see if they move in!

I’ll keep you posted! Next column, yet another local (wild) neighbor we didn’t even know we had.