Nature Done Wright

   Now that April is here, activity at the Celery Farm is blooming. With a little luck, some mojo will happen in a nearby screech-owl nesting box as well.

     I hope that as things develop, you’ll check back often. I update the blog almost every day with owl news and happenings at the Celery Farm, a 107-acre nature refuge in northern New Jersey.

    The story so far: Ace the Screech Owl moved into the nesting box the day after Thanksgiving.

   For the past four months he has been protecting his turf, hunting all sorts of critters quite successfully, and waiting for a mate to arrive.

   About two weeks ago, a female arrived, and for a few days there was a lot of early-evening activity in and around the box.

   People the most familiar with screech owl behavior say early April is when the courting kicks into high gear.

   Ace should definitely a love interest by now, and the female should start laying eggs very soon.

   The big question is, Will she lay her eggs in our nesting box?

    Thanks to a small video camera and microphone, we’ll keep tabs on what’s going on.

   For the past four months, I have played a waiting game, hoping something amazing will transpire in the box someday. If it does, it should start soon.

   The bottom line is that owls occupy nesting boxes maybe seven months a year at best, from as early as late October to the end of May.

   Ace or his sometime companion have been in the nesting box pretty much daily for more than four months already, and it had been a treat.

  Screech owls are wild creatures. They can up and leave whenever they want, and that’s the way the mop flops.

  Until that day, which could be tomorrow, next week, or in two months, my wife and I treat every day with a screech owl nearby as a gift of nature.