Barn Owl Nest Box Project off to a start! First two nesting boxes placed!

 I plan on placing as many barn owl nest boxes in Riverside CA farms as I can afford to purchase.

A pair of barn owls will catch and eat over 1000 rats, gophers and other pests when raising a nest of young.   The main restraint on the population isn't a reliable food source (there are many gophers and rats in the farms and citrus groves) but rather lack of nesting habitat.  They require either an old barn or old tree with hollow cavities.   Both are in short supply in Riverside.

Here is a picture of a barn owl inside a nest box.

Riverside California is blessed with a 5000 acre voter protected agricultural preserve.   The main method of rodent control used by farmers is poisons or rodenticides.   The issue is that whenever a predator such as a owl, hawk, fox, or other predator eats the poisoned rodent, they will become very sick and more than likely succumb to the poison.  

Barn owls are an environmentally friendly way to control rodents in farms.    They hunt mostly at night when rats and pocket gophers are out.   They are also comfortable with humans so will live on a urban setting.  

I decided to fund a project placing barn owl nest boxes in farms in Riverside farms.    I placed my first two nest boxes over the past two days.    One at Gable Farm near Victoria Ave and Tyler and another out by Lake Mathews in an citrus orchard.  I have 5 more to place in Riverside and already have farms who want one.

I am currently running a fundraiser on gofundme to raise funds to purchase another 16 boxes.  I want to get them placed before the barn owls start looking for nesting sites in March.  

Here are some pictures of the boxes at both farms.