SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Rodent control around the world

Jewish and Arab farmers in northern Israel have recruited avian assistance and adopted a green method of pest control.


A Jew, an Arab and an owl walk into a barn

A popular superstition holding that owls are bad luck caused Arab farmers to refuse for quite some time to put up nesting boxes for the birds, even though they are widely used by Jewish farmers as a form of biological pest control.
Israel Ornithology Center, has managed to persuade Arab farmers in the Lower Galilee to put up dozens of nesting boxes over the last year, and dozens more are slated to go up soon.
To convince Israeli Arab farmers to overcome their fears, Darawshe launched a major informational campaign.
"I spoke with students at the schools, and also with imams. I even did a search of religious sources and found that the Prophet Mohammed rejected superstitions against animals, including owls.
To date, Jewish farmers have put up some 2,700 nesting boxes, as owls eat a large number of agricultural pests.


To read more of the story click on the link below
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/a-jew-an-arab-and-an-owl-walk-into-a-barn-1.380129


A: For the first two weeks of age they eat from 2 to 4 per night. At three to five weeks of age they will consume 5 to 10 per night, per owlet! They will continue to consume about 10 voles per night until they are about ten weeks old, when the parents begin to slow down on the amount of food offered. This encourages the young to leave the nest to search for the parents, drop in weight, and eventually hunt for themselves at about twelve weeks of age