Fourteen barn owl offspring and counting

Article Date: 2008-09-10   Source: http://www.nantucketindependent.com   Comments: 0

By Peter B. Brace

Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.A. - For barn owls, Nantucket is becoming the place to catch rodents at night, hang out with their dates in a small box high up on a pole and raise chicks.

This summer, 36 barn owl boxes sprinkled around the island on private properties produced 14 chicks and counting, reported Maria Mitchell Association ornithological intern Julie Arntzen on Monday afternoon, during her second round of checking the boxes this summer with Maria Mitchell Director of Science Bob Kennedy.

"It was great," said Arntzen of the Barn Owl Class of 2008. "It was a very successful year. A couple of years ago, we were down to one barn owl and we pretty much lost all the owls, but they're coming back strong, so we're having another healthy group."

Barn owls, not nearly as abundant on Nantucket as gulls, crows or even red-tailed hawks, took a beating during the frigid winters of 2002 through 2005 that Arntzen spoke of, unable to keep warm enough to make it to springtime to breed.

On Monday, while checking the barn owl boxes after getting permission from property owners, Arntzen and Kennedy banded the young that they could find and that were old enough to wear the bands.

Barn owls, native to Nantucket and also known as the Monkey-faced owl, are a Species of Special Concern in Massachusetts that generally begin nesting in late April and have been known to be raising young as late as October. They usually lay five or six eggs and sometimes will raise two broods in one season, which is what Arntzen and Kennedy are also checking for in this second visit to the boxes. Of the boxes they checked, they found seven nesting pairs that produced 14 chicks in their first brood of the season with two of those pairs now raising their second broods. One of these two nests had four eggs in them and the other, chicks too young to be banded, said Arntzen.

Later this week, this pair of owl angels will have a more definitive census on Nantucket's barn owl populations, but from their perspective, it looks good heading into the fall and winter seasons.

"Especially if we have a calm winter," said Arntzen. "If they get a lot of snow and ice it won't bode well for them. They can't hunt through the snow and ice because this is the northern most extent of their range."

And their wooden, uninsulated boxes are only designed to protect the owls from the elements while they raise their young. They vary in style and size and are generally two feet by two feet by three feet, perched on a pole about six to ten feet off the ground. The boxes have a small landing/launching platform on their faces with an opening leading down a short baffle or hallway into a main chamber where eggs are laid without nesting materials.

In June when Kennedy and Arntzen had discovered five of this year's seven nesting pairs and Kennedy predicted there could be as many as 22 chicks raised this season, he offered this crucial advice to would-be barn owl watchers:

"I think that it is very important that if people see the nest boxes that people not disturb them, because if the birds are flushed, then the crows will destroy them. If the young fledge early, they would easily be prey to crows, curiosity could end up causing the birds to be killed."

Related Articles:
2008-06-18 - Barn owl population soaring this spring on Nantucket by Peter B. Brace - Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
2004-07-16 - Barn owls nearing extinction by Jason Graziadei - Nantucket, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

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