Barred or Great Horned Owl?

[Chalk76]

A few weeks ago i noticed one of my gourds was in a different orientation. Later that evening i found martin feathers under a nearby tree.

A few days later i noticed this on my feeder. I believe it is an owl pellet.

owl pellet.PNG (238.11 KiB) Viewed 7586 times

So i decided to put up a trail cam. Two nights later i captured this. Is this a barred owl or great horned?

STC_0008.jpg (105.75 KiB) Viewed 7586 times

The time stamp is actually wrong. It was around 10 p.m.
The next evening i stayed in my shop building located 15 yards from the nearest tree. Right at 9:58 i was startled by the biggest wing span i have ever seen. The owl swooped right up into the tree i found the martin feathers. After a few minutes it flew past the martin housing to a tree line. I waited about 10 minutes. Then spot lighted him and started walking towards him. Still couldnt get a good id. He eventually flew off.

Since that night. I have not noticed anymore feathers or gourds turned. I have not captured him on the trail cam either. I dont put much faith in the cam capturing him since they are made for triggering on bigger game.

I started researching on this site. I have installed a great horned owl decoy on a pole that i put out during the night and take down around 6 in the morning. From Steve Kroenke's thread.

I know an owl can be devastating to a colony. I have learned from this site to start looking for was martin bevior in the evening time. I have noticed they will socialize a while but are really jumpy. Coming on and off the racks. I have also noticed a few birds leave their gourds at dusk and i have not seen them come back. My numbers seem about the same. I have around 30 birds right now.

Anything else i can do to discourage this owl? I have thought about installing a few small wind chimes inisde the rack to impair the owls hearing. I will be converting to all troyer horizontals next season with owl guards.

[Lizzie]

I can't see the owl very well, but my first impression is that he isn't large enough to be a barred or great horned owl.
You can recognize a barred owl by his call....."Whooo-cooks-for-youuuuuu"

The great horned owl has feather ear "tufts" which look sort of like he has horns. Both are pretty sizeable owls, in the 16-24 inch height range.

[Larry A Kronemeyer]

What you do know is that you have an owl hitting your site.
Consider an owl cage ASAP, before it has a chance to do major damage.
There is a thread on the forum about owl behavior and things you can do to deter it hanging around. One landlord put up scarecrows,, lawn furniture, flags, rakes ....you name it....Then changed everything around every so many days.

It won't just go away without some action on your part. A cage is your best defense.

[Louise Chambers]

It's hard to tell from photo for sure, but looks to me like Great Horned Owl - put up temp guards now if you can - and an external cage would be best in long run.

[TheSmiths]

Links to owl cages
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21912
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22013
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/search/ ... rned%20Owl
I believe Kathy ended up making her cage a little larger because an owl managed to reach through and pull a startled PM off his porch. However, I couldn't find the link so maybe KathyF will jump in here.

I've also seen Nite-Guards mentioned but I can't imagine they would discourage an owl, especially once it's had a successful hunt.

[-=DKC=-]

I will be converting to all troyer horizontals next season with owl guards.

May I ask what gourds you are currently using. It's hard to tell from the picture but they appear to be S&K Bo11 gourds with tunnels which is what I am using.

[Chalk76]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I will get some temporary guards put up. I’ve seen someone make them with H stakes.

Larry- I have been putting different items that move from wind around the rack at night.

I know he’s been successful at least once. Can anyone with experience of repeated owl predation tell me what I should be looking for?

I check for feathers, blood, claw marks, etc. anything that looks out of the ordinary. I’ve found nothing since early April. I counted 30 birds today sitting on the racks in a rainy day today. About the same number I’ve been at for a week.

Dkc- I have 20 bo9’s with cooling caps and tunnel. Unfortunately these gourds are very shallow.

I also have 4 troyer horizontals. Which the owl is perched on in the picture.

I usually prenest all gourds with pine needles. I used needles from the same tree as last year. This year the martins threw out all the needles in the bo9s. They didn’t do that last year. They have been sleeping on plastic for weeks.

The troyers still have needles in them. It has crossed my mind that the owl has pulled these out of the bo9s.

I would think my overall numbers would be down considerably if that was the case.

Thanks again

[-=DKC=-]

Dkc- I have 20 bo9’s with cooling caps and tunnel. Unfortunately these gourds are very shallow.

Thank you. The Bo11s are fairly deep with tunnels installed which is why I was concerned that an owl could reach in that far. I haven't seen a Bo9. I suppose if multiple birds are squeezed into one gourd like they've been doing at my place recently an owl could possibly reach the closest one.

Thanks again and I wish you the best with your colony.

[taxidermy lady]

Try blinking lights! I have niteguard predator lights on all four sides of my chicken fence and never have had an owl after them! Good luck!

[KathyF]

Once an owl has eaten at your colony, it has a 'learned' behavior. No matter what type of gourd or house you have, you won't stop him now, until you put up a physical blockade. Nite guard lights, etc, won't stop him. I've been dealing with a Great Horned Owl now for more than 5 years. Here are some posts I made about the cages I built to protect my colony. Send me an email at [email protected] and include your phone number and we can chat if you have any questions.

Here are the links to my blogposts that may help you.

Here's the link to the one I built on the Super system:
Part 1

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/11 ... k-fob.html

Part 2

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/11 ... art-2.html

Part 3

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2015/01 ... art-3.html

Here's the information I provided for the round Deluxe gourd racks that I purchased from the PMCA.
http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2016/03 ... anges.html

[steve r]

I have been using music to keep the Owls away from my colony with great success. I have a speaker mounted to the top of the pole on my main gourd rack with a wire running down to a cheap radio. If you walk under your housing at night you will hear the martins vocalizing. I truly believe this is what the Owls key in on.

[terriergal]

possibly a short eared owl?

In any case, wind chimes will only work when there is a breeze enough to make them loud enough to distract the owl. But he already knows the martins are there.

This would be about the time young owls are getting out and hunting on their own as well. Whatever you have could be a juvenile and look slightly different from and smaller than its parents. Hard to tell from the photos. Having an idea of the call might help but at the same time, it doesn't matter the species. They need owl protection from all species.