Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program(Post 2) "Owls in our Attic"

When you live in a rural environment, you are living in nature and you will encounter wild animals.

In Three Rivers we get to see deer and bobcat, bear and snake and spiders and hawks and eagles, raccoon and skunk and more.

We are so blessed!

With that said, we do not want these wild animals to move into our homes. The following tale supports Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program.

"We've Got Bats in our Belfry and Owls in our Attic."

We returned from vacation and found that a barn owl had moved into the crawl space above our bathroom via an open air duct.

For about a minute, we were excited to think that a beautiful barn owl was nesting in our house. Then we realized that this big huge predator bird had built a nest; laid eggs and was calling this home.

What should we do? We decided to smok 'em out! I put up a ladder, donned a leather jacket, jeans, goggles and a helmet, and looking like a WW1 fighter pilot with smoke bomb in hand made my way to the entrance. My darling Geoff was hiding on the porch with his camera. I lit the bomb, threw it in the hole and ran. An owl came screeching out heading right for me just as I rounded the corner and ran into the garage. I ran up and nailed the opening closed and made it out of there just in time to miss the owl's return bombing run on the opening.

It was the male owl that came flying out and the female owl was still inside protecting her nest and screamed for two days. We had to stay in a motel. We could not get near the opening or take the chance of being killed by the male who was on guard in the oaks. When we finally could get up and take the board off the opening, we could see that the male had bloodied himself by attacking the door and it broke my heart.

Now they had won and pretty much took over. After consultation with various wild animal groups we found we were stuck with them until their young hatched and could fly. The gestation period would be 89 days and there was nothing we could do about the situation. It was awful!

First of all, owels are "up 'n at 'um" all night long! The sound of thundering hooves, clomp, clomp, clomp across the ceiling. The first time the mom and dad started moving around at night, we woke with a start and jumped out of bed to see what on earth was happening to our house. We banged on the ceiling to "scare them out". Several nights we poked at the ceiling with an umbrella which resulted in umbrella holes in our ceiling!! We were awakened many nights by the sounds of thundering hooves for the duration of their stay. We went to a motel on more than one occasion. After we closed of that side of the house we could not hear them quite so much.

Then there was the stench! Predator animals thrive on rodents, they go out early in the evening in search for food for their young. They bring their dead prey home to their loved ones. They eat their prey and then throw up their dinner for their young to eat. Kind of an owl's version of the food processor. Then of course there are the carcasses and a lot of bird poop up there too. Rotting, stinking and drawing awful bugs that prey on dead animals. I shudder to think! Our bathroom smelled so bad we could not use it, and flies came down from the crawl space through the light fixtures. We had to block the bathroom off and not use it for at least 2 months.

We pretty much got used to them. Of course we could not use half of our house for the entire time. Then one day Geoff said he thought he saw the babies flying around the yard. We gave them a little more time and then I once again donned my assault garb, climbed the ladder and stuck a spotlight in front of the entrance. They were gone in one night. They moved to the trees over our house, all five of them in a row, mom, dad and three babies, sat and screamed at us for 3 nights.

Then we got out the power nozzle for our watering hose and when they took their place on the branch of the old oak tree, I let 'em have it! I blasted 'em out of the tree with a riveting burst of water. It was a standoff for two nights and then they were seen no more. It was over.

I peeked in the hole to see what was in there and the sight was disgusting. Carcasses and encrusted bird shit two inches thick. We had to replace the entire ceiling and joists.

I still love owls, they are so beautiful and I treasure their presence. When I see them fly through the yard it takes my breath away - and then they are gone. Owl's gave me perspective on the racoons that have been trying to nest on my roof. Instead of saying how cute they are and how fun it will be to have them here, the smarter side of me said "get with the program", Diana's Raccoon Relocation Program.