A stable place to hoot
CHARTWELL – Two baby barn owls are the newest residents of the Steyn City Equestrian Centre, where they help control the rodent population.
The Steyn City Equestrian Centre has two fluffy new residents – barn owlets!
On 7 August, Hussein Moyo and Sara Orchardson from EcoSolutions and the Owl Box Project visited the site, where an owl box had been placed on the top of one of the buildings some years before. Finding the box occupied by two owlets, Moyo climbed a ladder in order to retrieve the animals who were then ringed for research purposes.
Using the opportunity to share knowledge about owls and their role in a healthy ecosystem, Orchardson invited children from the estate, children from the Steyn City School, riders and other interested residents to watch the ringing.
“These owlets are about three or four weeks old,” she explained to the fascinated crowd gathered to watch. “Barn owlets eat double the amount of food that their parents do, so the mom stays with the babies while the dad goes out to hunt each night. The food he brings back goes to the babies first, than he eats, than the mom eats last.”
Orchardson showed the children owl pellets that she found near the owl box, which consists of the parts of animals that the owls cannot digest and which the bird regurgitates.
She also explained that horse stables are a particularly good home for the animals, as there is plenty for them to eat.
“Stables lend themselves to rat populations because of all the hay, straw and horse feed,” she explained. “And this makes them an ideal environment for owls to hunt and breed in as they eat these types of vermin.
“Installing an owl box [in such a site] is a poison-free way to manage and control the rodent population, which is good because poison can be dangerous to other animals in stables such as horses, cats or dogs.”
One of the most interested watchers was Peter C Khoma, who is a groom at the stables and who helps collect owl pellets from the area that EcoSolutions can use in educational visits at schools.
He was invited to hold one of the chicks while it was being rung, as were a few of the children present.
“I’ve been seeing owls around here for the past three or four years,” he concluded.
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