National Wildlife Federation/ San Diego County

Barn Owl Box Building January 2006

May 27, 2006

BOB...The San Diego Habitat Stewards made10 Barn Owl Boxes at the Barn Owl Box (BOB) Project on Saturday the 14th. What an accomplishment. About twenty participants including Girls Scouts (Steward Dawn Rucker's troop) and spouses had a fun, educational and very productive afternoon at the workshop home of Host Connie Beck and husband Lew. All the wood was pre-cut into "kits" making assembly easier thanks to Lew and Connie.

Participants had a fun and educational experience at the BOB Project...it certainly was a busy garage; hustling around and all seemed to be "into it". They looked good and industrious on the KUSI news at 10PM.....yes we were interviewed and filmed and we have copies. I had planned on a more formal natural history presentation based on the references compiled by Steward Hester Gillespie ( and on the website www.SanDiegoHabitatStewards.org), but time constraints did not allow that...that's why I used the owl factoid flash cards visiting the participants as they assembled the 25 pound boxes (PDF plans on the website). Different owl vocalizations were played among the din of construction. They are from the Owl Pages website, one of my favorite references. Steward Joe Allen (Escondido) came early and put assembly in high gear and made two nesting boxes. Laura Starr our new newsletter co-editor took many photographs and also made a box with husband Don. Hester Gillespie led the discussion of mounting/ install issues before we watched the "Backyard Barn Owls" video. Participants were awarded a certificate for their commitment to the project.

Eliminating the use of rodenticides through natural predation is the BOB Projects mission.

Now the difficult part....the mounting/install

BOB2 ?....we have a learning curve here.
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Remember, all references are on the website www.SanDiegoHabitatStewards.org as well as the box PDF.

Danial Flower
BOB1 Coordinator