ATTENTION SAW-WHET OWLS - Nest Boxes Available!

Ken Sobon and team have installed over 15 nest boxes on the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve (BCCER). He is hoping that the boxes will attract saw-whets, perhaps those wintering on the Reserve or moving through in spring, will stay and nest. If a pair does-it would be the first documented saw-whets breeding on site! We haven't done any summer surveys so we can't say they don't breed here. Generally I think the Reserve is too low in elevation (and hot) for Sierra Nevada breeding habitat, but these owls are shown to be nomadic, meaning they will breed where conditions are right (good prey, micro-climate) and don't often return to the same breeding area.

Locations of seven nest boxes on the Reserve. Also see our two banding sites, OWL2 and OWL3. The structures include barn workshop, office and old ranch house.The forests provide cover and good roosting habitat for owls and the meadows are great habitat for foraging for rodents.

You can see the boxes are distributed around, mostly under good canopy cover and near meadows for foraging and all boxes face NE (cooler). Some are on different tree species, some near small drainages, some with a different slope aspect.  It will be really exciting to check these boxes. Other cavity nesters that might find the boxes homey are western screech owl, ash-throated flycatcher, northern flying squirrel, wood rats and???  Monitoring begins in early March. Stay tuned!

This box #8 will be under a fairly dense cavity when the oaks leaf out.
You can see the canopy closure in the aerial google earth photo above
taken in late May.