Wild Wing Company of Southern Sonoma County has been busy digging the sun-hardened dirt on the hills of West Petaluma this summer, sinking a series of eleven barn owl box poles into the ground for a new flight path, as part of a progressive effort to avoid the poison paradigm in dealing with vermin control.
Victoria Home Owners Association's original neighborhood dates back to the early 1990s and enjoys a bucolic setting on the western-most reach of city-limits. Positioned between the high ridge hillside housing the city's west side watertower and spectacular rolling hills and trails of 216 acre Helen Putnam Park, homeowners enjoy all of the benefits of country life just a few minutes drive from the community's historic downtown.
Naturally, part and parcel of backing onto acres of glorious, open space is dealing with the fact that vermin are equally keen on this as an ideal habitat. Norway brown rats, black rats, pocket gophers, voles and field mice are the primary perpetrators when it comes to home and yard invasion in the Victoria neighborhoods.
After much deliberation, the (old) Victoria Homeowners Association (separate from the second wave of homes constructed in the neighborhood in the late 1990s) and Petaluma property management company Steward Property Services, Inc came to the conclusion that a long term investment in brown owl boxes was not only the most cost effective way to keep vermin at bay, but by far the most environmentally friendly, natural way to control unwanted critters from the hillside sanctuary, close to homes.
Wild Wing Company's John Shuster is one of the world's leading experts on Bio-Diversity habitats for American Kestrels, Barn Owls, Bluebirds, Screech Owls, Tree Swallows, Violet-green Swallows, and Wood Ducks. And he just so happens to base his business in Cotati.
With his reputation in wine country (and internationally) as the go-to-guy for his American-made, state-of-the-art owl boxes, John's Wild Wing partnership with the Victoria neighborhood represents his two-decade-old company's largest single project in the Petaluma area.
From his wealth of experience implementing successful, high profile vermin control projects in a variety of locations around the world, John took considerable pleasure in surveying and strategizing the perfect plan for this particular, green initiative, close to home.
If you look carefully at the photos above and below, you'll just about be able to spot owl boxes positioned 100 yards apart in a carefully devised flight path that incorporates the whole of the housing association's domestic territory.
"We no more today than ever before about the barn owl and others," said John, as we took a hike up to one of the centrally positioned owl boxes, perched on a steel pole, cemented into the earth. I learned that it's a common mistake for people to mount owl boxes in trees. "The owl is an open space predator," explained John. "It is our goal to get owls into these boxes to breed."
Position boxes in a clear, open flight corridor, with openings all facing the eastward moonlight and the owls will come. Hide a box away in a tree and the big-winged beauties probably won't ever find it.
Though barn owls love evergreen, especially the live oak, Eucalyptus, redwood, palm and cypress trees prolific in this area, rainy season interferes with their nesting in natural habitat and owl boxes positioned in an ideal hunting path are now set to provide a dream home environment.
"Barn owls hunt a mile and a half in all directions," said John. "At least one or two families will inhabit each of these eleven boxes, breeding within the first six months of moving in."
One of the most skilled hunters of rodents in North America, the importance of the barn owl in California is gaining ground as landscape companies and homeowners continue to look toward more biodynamic methods of keeping vermin under control.
According to John, just one single barn owl will eat on the average of 155 gophers per year. With 48 Barn Owls in an area the size of the Victoria neighborhood, some 7,440 gophers alone will be gobbled over a 12 month period. "I'm calculating that there will be between 1,600 and 3,000 rodent kills per box per year," he said. Times that by 11 and that's as many as 33,000 rats, mice, gophers, voles and field mice fewer to nest in the garage!
Barn owls don't eat ground squirrels. And more good news for snake-fearing residents is that the fewer the vermin available, the less likely rattle snakes are to favor this as suitable habitat.
"When push comes to shove, barn owls will hunt in the day," said John. Keep your eyes out for activity if you're in the neighborhood, especially at night.
Another benefit of mounting an owl box on a metal pole is to protect the owl's habitat from mammals such as racoons, possoms and the illusive red tailed cat, none of which are able to climb.
Boxes will be cleaned out on an annual basis. "The barn owl is a true raptor," explained John. "It kills with its talons, crushing its prey, swallowing it whole and then regurgitating it. After it's done, it's ready to eat again." Compared to the slow digestion process of a snake, the barn owl's proclivity to ingest is by far the most productive.
Wild Wing's approach to eliminate rodents naturally in avoidance of what John coins the 'poison paradigm' is an age-old practice that has been used throughout history, all over the world.
Controversial rodenticides used in more recent years on a widespread basis to rid homes and businesses of rats and mice has been linked to all sorts of horrendous health problems in humans and pets.
Wild Wing's website has all sorts of useful information on barn owl programs for any habitat from single home backyards, to farms and vineyards, industrial grounds and regional parks.
Trained with the California Division of Forestry Ecology Corps in the early '70s, John took a significant diversion in his career path in the form of a professional musical detour for a number of years, performing all over the country as a singer, guitarist and harmonica player, opening concerts and guest recording on albums for the likes of Bob Dylan, Al Green, The Cars, Chris Isaak, The Neville Brothers, Van Morrison, Huey Lewis and the News.
Following his heart back to conservation, he founded Wild Wing in the early 1990s and has never looked back. Describing his vocation as a labor of love, John hopes to bring educational tours to the Petaluma hillside to promote a passion for barn owls amongst school aged children and area residents of all ages.
"I'm hoping that the young people who live in this neighborhood, as well as homeowners will take an interest in keeping an eye on the owl boxes and taking pride in what we're doing for the environment."
Virginia Sargent of Steward Property Services said: "Victoria HOA has been committed to environmentally sensitive methods of caring for their parks and open space. This started with using sheep and goat herds to graze the grass for weed abatement. This approach has continued with using owl boxes for rodent, gopher and mole control instead of traditional chemical means."
She said that the home association board was impressed with John's knowledge and comprehensive, long term approach to the problem. "With regard to costs, the board looked at the monthly maintenance cost with the pesticide approach and compared it with the upfront cost of installing the owl boxes and felt that, in the long term, the owl boxes were the better solution," she said. Wild Wing Company has provided owl boxes for two other homeowner associations Steward Property Services manages.
For more information on Wild Wing Company and its work with barn owls, as well as bluebird and swallow boxes for insect control,
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