The first day lily in the back yard bloomed this morning.

   The real estate market for humans may be slow in North Jersey. But for the feathered or the furry, it still appears to be quite active.

    Just a couple of days after I cleaned out the box and installed wood chips, we had a squirrel snooping around.

   He went in and out of the box several times before moving on -- not moving in.

     Squirrels and screech owls aren't a good mix. I was glad the squirrel didn't show up at the box until this week.

    Two years ago, a squirrel had babies in an owlbox on the same tree over the summer, when the screech owls had vacated it.

    Check the two short videos of the squirrel checking out his potential "digs."

Download MVI_1590a.avi 

Download MVI_1591a.avi

     I thought last night might be a good night to count little brown bats, but I thought wrong.

   The robin's nest got in the way.

    For the past two years, I have counted bats for New Jersey's Endangered and Non-Game Species Program.

    The bats are a welcome part of the neighborhood. They are amazing fliers, and they eat lots of insects.

   It has been an easy tour of duty. Just before dark, I sit in a lawn chair and look at the eaves of my neighbor's house and wait for the bats to emerge from behind the shutters and crannies just below the roof line.

    But this year I could not take my accustomed vantage point because of the robin's nest.

   No sooner had I (inadvertently) gotten to within 10 feet of the nest than the mother flew to the nearest roof and started clacking, non-stop, until I moved away.

   Who was I to disturb the robin's evening?

    I will have to wait to do the bat count for a week or two, after the robin babies have fledged.

    I went to the edge of my property line in hopes of seeing the screech owls.

    I waited and watched the trees for 15 minutes, until after dark, but I saw and heard nothing.

    As I went back to the house, I noticed another creature of the night, my first firefly of the season, twinkling silently in the dark.

   In its small way, it lit up the sky.

  Often as not, that's the way observing nature works.

   You may not see what you were looking for, but what you found turned out fine.

Although screech owls have roosted or nested in my owl box during the two previous years, this season was the only one that I know with any certainty that a complete success.

   (Yes, that's a photo of a very healthy screech owlet at the opening! It was taken last week.)

   The main reason I am certain of the outcome was, of course, the video-cam.  The video-cam allowed me to observe and safely track what was happening inside -- that there was an owl, and to follow the pair through incubation and nestling stages.

    Reason: Flashing makes it harder for raccoons and other potential predators to get into the box.

    Outcome: There was no predation of  eggs or owlets. 

   Reason: When owlets leave the nesting box, they invariably jump (and fall) to the ground; they are too young yet to fly. So it makes sense to clear the ground they'll fall upon.

   Reason: Once the owlets fall to the ground, they look for a nearby tree with a branch where they can climb to safety and be fed by Mom and Dad. Piling the underbrush at the base of the tree makes their task easier.  (While they sometimes climb back to the nesting box, they most often climb up easier "leaner" trees/branches).

   Suggestion: If a nearby tree lacks branches at nest-box level, install some yourself.

   Reason: The owlets need to be somewhere in the general vicinity of the box to be fed.

   Outcome: I never saw any of the owlets on the branch I installed, but the adult owls used it regularly as a perch. Jerry the photographer and I got a few great nighttime photos of the owls that we otherwise never would have gotten.

    Bottom line: Great advice all around...

       Thanks, David!

   Outcome: I never saw any of the owlets use those branches to climb the tree, but there was no downside (and no cost) to moving the branches.

   Outcome: I also put wood chips under the box to soften the fall. I saw three of the four owlets jump. One sort of 'flew' and landed about 10 feet from the box. A second owlet managed to land in a nearby shrub. The third one dropped from the box like a rock. I was glad I had cleared all the rocks and sharp branches, and I was glad for the wood chips.

      Suggestion: Find a nearby tree with a branch the same height as the nesting box opening, then lean several small branches against the base of that tree.

   Suggestion:  Remove all rocks and other objects on the ground under the nesting box.

    But I am also indebted to David Johnson, head of the Global Owl Project, who met me by chance at a raptor sanctuary last December and took an interest in the screech-cam and the nesting box.

   I showed David photos of the habitat back then, and he made several suggestions -- all of which I took. In retrospect, almost every one of them was on the money. 

   For anyone considering setting up an owl box of their own, here are the suggestions and how they played out with the Ace family.

   Suggestion: Install aluminum flashing on the tree below the nesting box.

    As you can see from the image above, I have left the owl box door open for the past two days to air it out.

   It was a bit rude.

   After cleaning out the last of the mess left behind by the Ace family, I put in new wood chips so we are all set for the next season.

   When I took the photo below, I noticed that one of the owlets had knocked the video-cam slightly off kilter.

   I will adjust that in the next few days.

   The question that some of you are perhaps wondering is, "Will the owls come back, and if so, when?"

   I'm guessing that in five or six months, either Ace will return or a new owl will move in, and the saga will begin anew.

   I am told that screech owls tend to return to successful nests, and that when you get owls year after year, you must have a pretty good location.

   Patty and I have had an owl box on the same swamp maple tree since December 2002.

   In late October 2004, we got our first screech owl, Otus, a red-phased owl. He found a mate and they nested in the box.

   In early November 2005, we got our second screecher, a gray phase. He found a mate but they did not successfully nest in the box.

  In late November 2006, Ace arrived, and the rest is (natural) history.

    Tomorrow: How helpful were the

  expert's tips for the owl box?