A pretty cool photo
Last night at dusk when pulling into the drive way an owl on a street light caught my attention. This bird was bigger than the other birds that frequent these parts and why it just looked different. Only once it was silhouetted did I notice the distinguishable ears identifying this as an owl.
The other birds in the area kind of gave it away as they were making a screeching type chirping racket letting off warning sounds that there was danger around. I know they eat other smaller birds as I have found the tell tale signs of the heads in the drive way and no bodies. This is how owls consume their prey as possibly the skulls are not great for the digestive system and could be too large to squeeze one out. I am just guessing as if you dissect an owl dropping you will find the bones and recall having to do that during my school days.
Owls are the reason why I hate using rodent poison as in one of the warehouses we had in the past we had a family of barn owls living in the rafters. They are only there for shelter and the abundance of food being rats. I had to call in the owl sanctuary to rescue them as the landlords of the warehouse refused to not use bait boxes around the perimeter. When an owl eats a poisoned rat the rat not only dies, but so does the owl.
What is quite surprising is the numbers these birds can consume daily being anywhere between 3 and 12 rats, birds and mice or whatever creatures they can hunt. The sanctuary said the youngsters who cannot quite fly yet are quick across the floor and could catch 8 rodents daily. We all knew how fast they were as we could not catch one of the youngsters that was loose on the warehouse floor.
2 months ago we had a garden clean up as we had noticed too many rats appearing and they had been building nests in our garden refuse section. They come from the nearby river and had nested in a few gardens due to the abundance of fruit dropping from the palm trees. I had the fruit removed and the garden cleaned up and over night the rat problem has disappeared or may have moved to another garden and why Mr Owl is hanging around or maybe the small birds that were in panic mode had caught his eye.
I never used poison in our garden due to knowing about the owls in the area and the only solution is rat traps which are no good as I only caught birds or remove their food source. I had no idea that the Jelly Palm berries were a favorite food source and have a flavor similar to a pineapple/apricot with a hint of coconut. Our street is full of these trees and why we have rodents running around in season which attracts the owls to come hunting at night. At least I know now is to cut the berries off early before they become a food source.
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