Rats and mice scurrying around Beelarong Community Farm had better watch out. Soon they will be dinner for barn owls which swoop from the night sky with deadly efficiency.
The birds of prey will have some swank new digs, thanks to Dave Tucker who built a sturdy nesting box from plywood and this week supervised its installation on top of a five-metre galvanised steel pole.
Dave, a Beelarong committee member with many skills, says the project was driven by the need to phase out the use of rat baits at the farm. “I got the idea when I went along to a presentation by Stefan Hattingh of Bulimba Creek Catchment Co-ordinating Committee (B4C),” he says
“I learnt about the hazards posed by second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). Predators such as hawks, owls, even carpet snakes can die if they eat rodents which have consumed these poisons.
Barn owl nesting boxes are a better alternative. They are used around the world as a natural means of controlling rats and mice in agriculture. An adult barn owl will eat seven to eight small mammals a day.”
Dave also uses cages to catch rats which are then humanely euthanised. He says that barn owls should show up at Beelarong soon. Or maybe boobook owls which have made their home in a nesting box at Northey Street City Farm.
A barn owl family can get a bit crowded with a nesting pair sharing their home with two or three batches of offspring. “There could be as many as eight to 12 owls in total,” says Dave.
The owl pad has a door for birds to come and go and another to allow the box to be cleaned.
Beelarong would like to thank Southside Fabrications of Capalaba which supplied the steel pole for the project.