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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY FEBRUARY 2007
Over the years I have installed nest boxes for birds in areas near my home. I've put up boxes with farmer's permission in farm acreage around my house. Also, in the state land I have put up boxes as remote as I can to keep the hunters from destroying them in the fall. Bluebirds are very easy to attract if the homes are put up in the right habitat but I have also had as tenants; tree swallows, nuthatches, chickadees, house wrens, great-crested flycatchers, wood ducks, screech owls, and even a kestrel, a small falcon. Each winter about this time, I check out the boxes to see if they are still standing or if they need replacement or repair. All my nest boxes have a provision for looking inside and I can check them to see if a bird is nesting in season. On boxes that are fairly tall in the trees, I keep a rough wooden ladder nearby for climbing up to them. These ladders are constructed of very simple means so that if someone was to find them they would be of no value to them. They look like the ladders built by the Mexicans during the Alamo siege but have served me well. I have read where if you see a hole in a
tree and you tap on the trunk, if an owl is there they will peak out. This is
never been the case with me. I have tapped on a tree holding one of my owl boxes
and nothing has appeared. Then, finding and setting up my ladder, I have climbed
up and opened up the box to find and owl sitting in there looking at me. I mean
why would an owl answer to a knock on the tree anyway, they want to remain
hidden during the day. I have found flying squirrels that way, however, they do
respond to tapping and appear at the hole looking down at you with their huge
dark eyes trying to adjust to the daylight.
Screech owls are small owls about eight inches tall. Just about everything harasses them. The birds that discover them during the daylight will scream and shout at one, and larger birds such as blue jays or grackles will kill them if they can. And at night when it is out hunting mice, the larger Michigan owls such as the great horned owl or barred owl will hunt and eat a screech owl. So, the screech owl must have several places to hide where they can flee to and their larger enemies can't fit in the same hole and capture them. When I do find a screech owl in a box, they never try to fly away. They just cower down into a corner of the box, and I quickly close the box up and leave them. They know not to fly away in the daytime and be found by their numerous enemies and so take their chances with me. Screech owls don't screech - they have a long whinny- sounding call that frightens all the songbirds as darkness approaches. Under the cover of darkness, the table turns and the screech owl will surprise and take small birds as food.
Often, in the winter, white-footed mice or squirrels have moved into my nest boxes. If that is the case, I wait till spring to remove their nest and litter to be ready for the birds. The nest box work is enjoyable and gives me an excuse to go out into the woods in the middle of winter. There really isn't much going on out there this time of year, in fact most of the birds are at my feeders in my backyard and I go for long distances in the woods without seeing any sign of life. But getting the boxes ready for next season gives me the optimism I need at this time of year.
Return to PHOTOGRAPHY JOURNAL main page. Date this page was edited: February 3, 2007. |
Please
see my 
All
this setting up boxes is for good reason. I love to see the birds close, but it
also gives me a great opportunity to photograph them. Once birds are nesting in
one of my boxes, it is simple enough to bring in a blind to photograph from over
a period of days to get them used to me. Then I can photograph the birds on the
boxes or set up props next to their homes for them to land on as they come
and go. In this photo on the left of an old set, I am in the large black box
while a pair of Eastern bluebirds are nesting in the nest box on the left. By
attaching a prop on the slat under the box, I can get the bluebirds to land
there as they enter with food or leave after feeding their young.
This
photo on the right is the result, a shot of a bird at a nest box that doesn't
look like it is at a nest box. Bluebirds are very popular and I have had more
photos of them in magazines then any other bird. I have also taken more bluebird
photos than any other bird. Everyone loves bluebirds.