Barn Owl, Tyto Alba of Lea County

March 21, 2018

Featuring: Owls – Barn Owl, Tyto Alba of Lea County

Barn owls are a common bird flying in the night sky of Lea County, New Mexico and areas adjoining our County. They are superb hunters with keen sight and hearing. The barn owl has vision to see into darkest of nights or in buildings with no lighting, topping any other owl.

Barn owls have very soft feathers, which help them to fly almost silently. With this flight ability and their keen sight and hearing they can drop down on their prey and grab the mammal with their extremely sharp talons killing the meal instantly.

Barn owls are not other raptors that tear their prey apart while eating. Barn owls swallow their prey whole. Indigestible parts, the bones and fur, are regurgitated in the form of a pellet. These coughed-up pellets have been used as science-lab experiments for school children to see what the owl had eaten.

Barn owls can breed their first year. They are not nest builders but find a ledge or hollow spot in a tree where the female lays 4 to 6 white eggs. The barn owl can lay eggs over several days and the first egg is incubated for 31-days before the owlet hatches. Usually, 3 to 4 eggs hatch and only 2-3 owlets survive to fly the night sky.

Barn owls have a short life-span. 1 out of 4 or 5 survives for more than a year. A 6-year old Barn owl is a rarity, although one has been recorded living for 21-years.

Did you Know – Facts:

Barn owls are crepuscular; they hunt mainly at dusk and dawn. They fly 2 to 4 feet off the ground looking for mice and young small rats.

A group of owls are called a ‘parliament’.

A barn owl family over a year’s time can consume 5,000 small mammals. NOW, that’s a lot of mice!

Barn owls make eerie shree screams and hissing noises; they do not ‘hoot’.

This owl targets its prey with sight and sound, dives to the ground, penetrating its talons through snow, grass and brush to seize the prey with deadly accuracy.

It is a widely distributed specie of owl around the world and one of the most widespread of all birds.

Why are the so Many Dead Owls on the Side of the Road?

March 16, 2018

Question: “Why are there so many Barn Owls dead along the highways as I travel work in the oil fields, Dr. Dirt?”

Aaron
Lea County, NM

Answer:  Aaron, thanks for the question and for watching the Dr. Dirt videos created at the Western Heritage Museum for public education. Your question is not a ‘stumper’, as I see numerous Barn Owls killed along the roadways too.

Most of these owls are killed on their hunting forays. Roads and highways have been constructed with bar-ditches that are usually filled with native vegetation. Then the bar-ditch abuts rangeland interfaces outside of the cities and towns. What has been created is an ideal environment for several species of mice, rats and young gophers that heavily feed on the wild grasses and weeds which the owls prey on.

Barn Owls are keen hunters of the night with their vision and off-set ears to pin point sound of a mouse rustling or squeaking in these right-of-way’s. These areas are attractive hunt zones for the Barn Owls. When Barn Owls are hunting they fly about 2 – 4 feet above the ground. This make them an easy target with any fast-moving vehicle traveling down a roadway at night.

Another source that is killing Barn Owls that is on the rise is the improper use of rat and mice poisons. These small mammals ingest the poisons and concentrations build up in the rat or mouse. The Barn Owls swoops down onto its prey, which is fully laced with a poison. Once the owls begin to digest their meals they are poisoned by their food source…ultimately misapplication by human hands. Now, I will caution the reader, this can affect your cat(s) or dog(s) as they will eat these same animals in an outdoor setting. Many Bird Refuge Biologist and Veterinarians are seeing this problem more often and autopsied birds reveal the evidence.

Dr. Dirt

Worm Facts

March 16, 2018

Question: What are some other interesting facts about worms in the soil, my yard and garden?

Helen
Seminole, TX

Answer: The term ‘worm’ can have several meanings. Generally, a worm is an immature larval stage of insects, which can be good or bad. Example, caterpillars on plants. Is that worm eating your favorite flower? Bad worm! As this worm pupates, lives to make a cocoon and lives in it for a while and then emerges turning into a beautiful butterfly. Now, this butterfly has become a great pollinator. Other worms, change into hard shell beetles and not so pretty and do damage as living adults.

What I think you are referring to, is the earthworms. They are very beneficial to the soil and they do not eat your favorite flowers roots either.

Did you Know – Facts:

Depending on soil quality, there can be 250,000-1.75 million earthworms per acre of land, in the common soils of Lea County it’s closer to the 250,000…lots of worms!

Here’s an interesting note. An average farm with livestock, the weight of the worms beneath the soil’s surface will likely outweigh the livestock that walk on top.

Earthworms can consume half to one times their body weight every day. They are nature’s garbage disposers and consume a wide variety of organic matter, tiny rocks; enriching the soil profile.

Certain earthworms can live up to 50-years old and other types living up to 4-8 years of age. Many only live for 1-2years as they are the bottom of the food chain for a great hosts of other animal life.

There are 6,000 species of earthworms known, and a 120 species are widely dispersed around the world.

Dr. Dirt