Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with the folks from Maria Mitchell Association near Quidnet who were doing their fall monitoring of owl houses throughout the island. “Barn Owls began breeding on Nantucket in 1968. These birds do not like very cold weather and prior to 2002, the population was only about 15 to 20 pairs. During the severe winters of 2002 and 2003, however, the population crashed to a low of only one known owl in 2005. In 2006, we knew of one successful nest and the population has been increasing since then, helped perhaps by the construction of many nesting boxes.”
The box is about 12 feet in the air. There was a system in place to block the owl front door entrance and then they opened the hinged back of the owl house to see what was inside. They found a new nest with 6 eggs (smaller than chicken eggs) and the mother owl inside. With big thick gloves on, they caught her gently by her legs and brought her out to measure and put a band on her leg. I had always thought that barn owls were black, white and grey, but she was mostly a beautiful tawny brown color. The black and grey feathers on her back are for camouflage when sleeping in a tree. She was a new resident of this owl box, sometime since last spring. If you are interested in helping to monitor and protect these special birds, you can have an owl box on your property if you have some space. Please contact the Maria Mitchell Association directly. Here are some photos.
