Warning! This is a long post!
For our New Years entertainment, a screech owl box, which Dave put up in the pine trees in the back yard. About 12-14 feet up, with a view towards the north/ northwest, it is about 20″ tall and about 8″ deep and 11″ wide with a 3″ hole in the front, thick wood with sloped overhanging roof. It came with a bag of wood shavings. We also got a barred owl box which is really cool, but too big for our yard. Not to mention that would mean that two owls would have to find our boxes and then get along. Barred owls might even eat screech owls, I’ll have to look it up. Western Screech Owl, hopefully eventually I can get my own picture to post someday:
Pic of the Sceech Owl box we mounted in the backyard, on one of the bigger pines:
Also got a ‘critter cam’, so far just ‘capturing’ a couple of birds and ourselves setting the camera up. It’s exterior is all cammo looking, but it is an outdoor IR light motion sensitive camera. We hope to capture other creatures, such as the deer that are obviously stomping on the grounds again…..time to get out the wolf pee again! Or coyotes or other creatures that size.
Right now it is mounted on a vine maple pointed at the pond edge that I call “robin beach”. A chickadee set it off yesterday but only because it alit onto a branch that then swayed right front of the camera. I don’t think small birds will trigger this camera usually though, it didn’t capture the wrens coming home to roost in out hanging baskets. Anyway, the video card holds multiple 20 second videos and also photos if we want, we just have to set it up to view a particular area and then download the shorts the next day:
The wrens usually like this, but the squirrels do too, and one has already been scoping out his prospects. It’s supposed to be placed away from where squirrels can jump down on it, and they can’t climb the pole, which is about 5′. It’s a little close to small shrub branches, but can be moved if they are able to do that. We have it on it’s side right now to avoid swaying or tipping over from having it upright…..plus dave would have to even out one of the end first. Though that gives birds a flat surface to land on, and any type of larger bird could decimate it. We’ll have to keep an eye on it, I could rotate it if need be to move the holes away from the flat surface -if possible. There are no rungs or perches for larger birds, unless of course they are able to just sit down and gorge! The last feeder we had of this type was swinging from the deck in back but unbeknownst to us, we moved it away from where Mr Squirrel could leap down onto it but close to a ground rock, from which he LEAPED UP and got onto the feeder, then tore it apart.
Prepped the rest of the front yard rock garden for planting and seed sowing, the northern part after removal of the big ass fern (to the back yard). 14 bags total of top soil, potting soil, pea gravel and 1/4-3/4″ rock gravel filled in the resulting defect. Planted Lewisias Cotyledon and Tweedii, Castilleja Miniata, and planted seeds of Bear Grass, Rock Buckwheat, Desert Parsley, Iris Setosa, Iris Missouriensis, and Iris Chrysophylla. Later, plan to sprinkle Harvest Brodiaea, remaining Fawn lily of several types, some other Buckwheats, Gaillardia, Sea Thrift, Monardella and whatever else seeds are left around wherever I can find spare ground!
We reclaimed the 3 1/2′ x 30 ‘ north ‘bank’ of the dry overflow stream bed down in the backyard, by clearing it out of brush and having a border barrier put in around the salal/spires patch so I could plant without worrying about suckers. Transplanted Woolley Sunflower starts from the front, and small blue penstemon and blue flax from the back. Few random plants like yellow penstemon and Golden Columbine. Lots of room yet for seeds, probably a good place for most of the parsley flowered and sulphur flowered Buckwheat seeds.
ellensgarden.us 