# Attracting owls



## Direwolfe (Sep 11, 2007)

Has anyone tried to attract owls or raptors to their property? Any success? I have some property in NELP . The property and surrounding property is broken up forest, cedar swamp, naturally open fields, and food plots. LIke to try to attract some (more) owls.

THanks in advance.


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## answerguy8 (Oct 15, 2001)

Try some pheasant or partridge chicks.


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## Bonz 54 (Apr 17, 2005)

You might try putting up some nesting platforms or boxes and some perches. Same as Woodduck boxes only bigger with a larger entry hole. You wont lure them with food, they need to kill their food. You would need to get them up soon, the Great Horned Owls (and probably most others) breed near the end of February. That would be my suggestion. FRANK


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## jackbob42 (Nov 12, 2003)

Plant some spruce trees in the open fields. Just like a christmas tree farm. That will allow the rabbit population to explode. And then , the owls will find them on their own.


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## Direwolfe (Sep 11, 2007)

Thanks for the ideas. As for the chicks, I've tried but never had much luck. Started with 200 but didn't get any to grow. I don't know if I was planting them too deep or not using enough fertilizer. ( old joke).


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## answerguy8 (Oct 15, 2001)

Direwolfe said:


> Thanks for the ideas. As for the chicks, I've tried but never had much luck. Started with 200 but didn't get any to grow. I don't know if I was planting them too deep or not using enough fertilizer. ( old joke).


Since you appear to be a good natured guy, let me ask: Why do you want to attract owls?


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## Direwolfe (Sep 11, 2007)

AG8

Like to think of my place as a functioning ecosystem for game and non-game critters alike. Always liked owls and would like to see some of the rarer big ones. (In Holly, once had an approx 48" wingspan one try hopping out of the chicken coop with a fryer in its talons as I was going to lock up- don't need to see one that close again).


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## WAUB-MUKWA (Dec 13, 2003)

I wouldn't want to attract them buggers (owls) but we see a lot coming down from Canada during the winter months. We had a lot of them last winter. I watched one hunt while out w/ the blackpowder. I've seen them carry off turkey chicks, cats and puppys so another reason not to attract them. They'll come on their own.


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## Direwolfe (Sep 11, 2007)

Great! I hate kittens and puppies! (not really).


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## riverroadbeagles (Oct 14, 2007)

I have a couple flying around my woods you are more than welcome to come and try to catch them and take them with you:lol::lol:


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## wally-eye (Oct 27, 2004)

Used to raise chickens for a while. Had several fat happy owls in the area...:rant: Cost more to feed the owls than the chickens...:rant:


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## aslongasitpullsback (Dec 30, 2005)

Back when I was in high school [ was in a bird banding club].we use to call them in with there maiting call...
find out witch owls are in your area. 
make a tape of thier call and run it in a repeating loop on a game caller...
this is what we used. we then had a lite [mesh] trap net, just for catching birds and then we would band them, take measurement and weight them ect....
you can use the call to attracted them to you wood lot ect......


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## labman64 (Jan 8, 2008)

I'm thinking if you build some roosting boxes for winter time protection the owls may stay in your area throughout the rest of the year


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## Reel_Screamer86 (Mar 22, 2007)

*We have quite a few Owls and alot of hawks on our property, and watched our small game population dwindle over the last few yrs. I wish there was something we could do to get rid of a few.. We used to have a great population of snowshoes and grouse but not anymore, because of the predation..*

*Direwolfe give me your address and i'll post it out in the woods to let the owls,hawks see it and head to your place...*


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## franky (Apr 14, 2004)

They are quite cool birds I must say. I have had one land about 10 feet away from me before I left the treestand one afternoon and it was really cool to see it because they are such stealthy critters. I have 2 wood duck boxes that are along the creek going through my back yard and they have both been used by owls. Not the BIG ONES but they are smaller and if you get lucky you can stroll by and they will have their heads sticking out of the hole with their eyes closed but they will wake up and scare ya if your not too quiet.


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## mwp (Feb 18, 2004)

I used to have a few over here.It was cool to hear them at night hooting,especially when all the leaves where off the trees and it would echo throughout the woods.I haven't heard any in a year or so though!!


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## Blackeagle (Jun 8, 2002)

Real Screamer,

I feel your pain, had the very same problem.

Solution is a chainsaw used selectively. 

Cut down ALL tall dead trees on your property. The raptors use them as places to both rest and watch from. Such trees greatly increase the hunting success of these birds. 

After several years of cutting down such trees our small game is starting to do better. About one more year and I'll have 100% of such trees cut on some of the properties next to mine. Those owners get free tree removal services and I get the wood and reduced predation.

Note I say reduced predation as they will hunt your property some from live trees. But the leafage does a lot to keep their kills to a tolerable level.


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## Blackeagle (Jun 8, 2002)

As for attracting owls.

Leave tall dead trees standing, very important to hunting success of these birds. Allows them to make the most of food taken for energy expended.

Wood duck boxes put up in a upland wooded area will attract smaller owls quickly. I did a project some years back where money raised by area sportsmen was used by a local scout troop to build & put up woody boxes. 
When placed in timbered areas that were not far from open areas they hosted far more owls than ducks.

Edit: You can also put up T bar poles in clearings. 4 X 4 post with a 5' T on top, the taller the better (fair warning, I've only seen this done by tree nurseries, I've not done it myself.) You can also create dead trees by girdling live trees to kill them by cutting a 3-4" section of bark off the trunk of the tree in a area where rodents or other food sources seem abundant, but where there are no prime perch sites.


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## det07 (Mar 26, 2006)

blackeagle, 

I hunt a small woods that has a lot of dead trees in it. I noticed a lot of squirrels using these trees for cover, wouldn't cutting them down make the squirrels move out? I did see an owl while deer hunting but it didn't seem to be hurting the small game populations in the area. In fact I wish that owl would take out some of the stray cats in the area. I think the cats are doing more harm than the owl. I see the cats stalking the turkeys a lot.


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## Blackeagle (Jun 8, 2002)

Stray cats are a plague on small game and small birds/animals of all types. If on my own private land, my brothers or one neighbors who feels the same way, they are shot on sight.

As to the squirrels, while they do use dead trees if hollow, they don't have to have them to the degree the birds of prey do. And if you know the tree has small hollow(s) you can always leave that one while cutting down the others.
I'd still cut trees with larger hollows down as they'll host more raccoons than squirrels.

Most of the dead trees in my area are Elm and to a growing degree Ash. Both of these tree types offer few hollows compared to maples or cottonwood trees. Ash seem to offer few hollows even in mature trees of great size, and Elm don't live long enough in my area for me to know. 

Squirrels are one of the animals I enjoy seeing. I don't shoot them as I dislike the taste but they are always neat to watch while out deer hunting.

You can also put up squirrel nest boxes. They are about the same size as a wood duck box, but the hole is placed on one of the side panels for ease of use.

Sad how that Emerald Ash Borer got loose in our state. I expect to cut down and cut up dozens of Ash in the next few years & perhaps hundreds before those bugs are done. I cut down the largest tree for miles around off of my brothers farm last year, it's growth rings showed it to be 147 years old. It was already there growing as a young tree when my grandfather cleared that area. Standing as it did next to a our field on one side and the neighbors on the other it got lots of fertilizer. We took 13 1/2 truck loads of wood out of that one tree.....and the bonfire from it's limbs was huge. We burned up more of that tree than many would have, but planting time was fast upon us and we had no more time.......


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