Screech Owl - 17 Apr 2018

When I gave mom a pair of bluebird boxes for her birthday (March 14) I found out that Louie had been making bird houses as a new hobby. I asked him to make me a Screech Owl box, and the next day he dropped off this beauty.

I went to Lowes and picked out (2) ½" galvanized steel stove pipe in 6' sections and bought a ½" coupler to connect the two. I then added a flange at the top to connect the pipe to the box. Unfortunately, after a day of strong winds I realized that ½" steel pipe was too flimsy. The box was bending in the wind.

So, I went back a bought a 10' section of 1" stove pipe, added a 1' section with a 1" coupler, and tried again. This time the pole was secure and stable in the wind. I pounded a 1.25" pipe in to the ground (12" piece) that I used as a sleeve for the 10' section, and shimmed the bottom to level. 

Just 2 weeks later I came home from lunch with Terry and Glenn and found this cute little gray-morph Screech Owl sleeping in the box!