Owls that Lost Eggs at San Martin Construction Site Will Get New Home

A newly constructed nesting place for owls may bring hundreds of new birds near a home in Santa Clara County, where a clutch of owl eggs was 
rescued from harm’s way on Friday.

About a week ago, workers were installing a new roof on an old
, two-story house in the unincorporated town of San Martin, when they noticed a
 large bird fly from an alcove, according to Rebecca Dmytryk, founder of WildRescue, a Monterey-based 
group that helps animals in precarious situations.

On closer inspection, crews found the small, white round eggs of a
 barn owl, Dmytryk said, adding,
 “There was evidence that the pair of owls had nested there for
 some time.” 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials were called, and a 
joint-decision was made with WildRescue to remove the eggs on the belief that
 the un-hatched owls’ lives were in jeopardy, she said.

“There are so many factors to consider at that construction site,” 
Dmytryk said. “Protecting the space around the nest wasn’t going to be 
enough.”

The eggs were removed and taken to the International Bird Rescue
 Center in Fairfield, where they were placed in a state-of-the-art incubator
 that keeps the eggs at just the right temperature and turns them after an 
allotted time.

The mother and father owls will also get a new home, which
 WildRescue crews plan to build Monday.

At the consent of the homeowners in San Martin, a barn owl box
 made of plywood will be built near the house for the two owls found at the
 property, Dmytryk said.

“It’s early enough in the season that the pair should be able to
 have one if not two more clutches,” she said.

She said the box, which will be about 24-by-36 inches,
 could be big enough for the owls to have up to 13 eggs in a clutch.

“Barn owls do really well in these manmade homes,” she said.

If the mother owl continues to lay eggs, the new babies could eat 
the equivalent of 12 mice each night, offering a good option for rural and
 even urban Bay Area residents dealing with a mouse invasion.

“These boxes are becoming common, because they’re seen as a good 
alternative to rodent poison,” she said.

Cats, on the other hand, also kill mice, but sometimes create more problems 
than they solve, and they shouldn’t be used to fight rodent infestation, according 
to Dmytryk.

“Cats kill all wildlife and take food away from owls,” she said, 
adding that snakes, foxes, bobcats and coyotes are also deprived of wild food, 
because of the felines.

“It’s upsetting the natural balance tremendously,” she said.

The rescued owl eggs may have a tough road ahead of them.

Dmytryk said when the eggs hatch in about 30 days, crews will try
 to find a wild owl nest where the babies can be placed. But the new owl
 family needs to have babies of its own of roughly the same age, and the
 parents may also need to have lost another baby owl.

“If a baby owl blows out of a palm tree and dies, for example,
 then we have a potential to reunite the family with one of the owls we found
 once they hatch,” she said.

Specialists will otherwise have to rehabilitate and release the
 owls into the wild once the birds can fend for themselves. But it’s better to
 put them with a family, if possible.

“It’s certainly in the best interest of the owls, to get them with
 a parent,” Dmytryk said. “They require quite a bit tutoring after they 
hatch.”

Bay Area residents interested in having a barn owl box installed
 on their property can e-mail rescue@wildrescue.org.

—By Bay City News Service