Ramona Resident Earns His Living Following His Passion—Birds

Tom Stephan of Ramona can say he has launched a few celebrities. He didn't know it at the time.

Molly and McGee and their children have "gone viral" on the Internet but Stephan couldn't have foreseen that when he went to install a humble owl box at a property in San Marcos a few years ago.

Two barn owls moved into the box, built a nest, and the news of the fledglings had readers glued to their computers. Thanks to a tiny camera in the box, viewers developed a rare intimacy and love for the birds, as they watched the fledglings learn to fly or the parents bring home rodents by moonlight. It's sort of like reality TV.

Immune to the celebrity of the birds, Stephan continued on with his work of helping people all over the state eradicate rodents from their ranches.

Stephan is a master falconer who makes his living installing the boxes. Another Ramona resident builds them for him, according to customer preference. Stephan's company is called Barn Owl Boxes.

He says his interest in birds was aroused when his grandmother in Ohio became head of the local Audubon chapter, after working diligently to save bluebirds. His falconry "obsession" as he calls it began in second grade, when he read an article about it in National Geographic magazine.

When he was 16 years old, attending Poway High School, he handed over the required $15 to the state for a falconer's license, he said. It was 1968.

"I got my first kestrel in 1967," he said with a chuckle. "I didn't even know I needed a license."

He's been a falconer ever since.

Stephan's love of climbing trees as a young lad led him naturally into becoming a certified arborist.

He likes to tell the story about how he got into installing owl boxes. He got a call to trim a tree and when he got to the home he found a barn owl box that needed to be properly hung. The elderly widow he helped that day was so happy when a couple of barn owls moved in that it inspired Stephan to continue the work.

In 1981, the owner of San Pasqual Winery, now Orfila Winery, saw him working with his falcon and asked him to come take a look at the European Starling problem at the winery.

"Do you think your bird can help us?" the winery owner asked.

"I know it can," Stephan recalls saying.

"Those starlings are the number one agricultural pest in the United States," Stephan told Patch recently.

His success at the winery landed him more work at some San Luis Obispo wineries.

"It was a lot of fun," he said.

In the 1990s, Stephan landed bird control contracts with the military and private enterprises all over the country, using his falconry to scare other birds away from runways. He did work for March and Edwards Air Force bases, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, he said.

"There's a book called Odd Jobs," he said. "Well, I was in Odd Jobs II. I was the first person to do bird control like that in the western hemisphere."

Stephan said he was also the first to coin the term Ramona Grasslands and he was one of the people to start which is held annually in January and February at Wildlife Research Institute at the grasslands. (see attached video)

In December 2010, Patch accompanied Stephan to an owl box installation in Poway. Property owner Mike Ward told us he was fed up with squirrels going after his fruit. He grows peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, avocados, loquats, citrus fruit and a variety of nuts on his acre on Tierra Bonita.

"They destroy a garden," Ward said. "We've had a hard time growing anything. We can't grow grapes because they eat them all."

Stephan to the rescue, working with precision and speed. Every tool has its place in his tool box. On this day, he was meticulously punctual and organized. After a quick tour of the property, he settled on a spot with a bit of shade and up went the owl box in no time at all, on a metal pole.

"The door has to face north, so the sun doesn't shine in the box," he told Ward.

Ward had been using a poison bought through the Department of Agriculture. It's an anti-coagulant. Stephan suggested getting rid of it.

"Two or three doses kill owls and owls don't let you know they're sick. They just die," he said, explaining the potential effects of eating any poisoned squirrels.

He told Ward that he had a good chance of getting owls "right away."

"It's peak house hunting season," he said. "They're getting broody."

Stephan said barn owl couples have been known to consume up to 3,200 rodents a year. They become active in and out of their boxes beginning 25 minutes after sunset, he said.

"You can set your watch to it."

Rodents don't just bother ranchers. Stephan said he has been called out by people after the

Watch the video of the barn owl installation to meet Stephan's Prairie Falcon, Cookie, who rides with him in his van.