The owl is among the most skilled of bird predators in the world. You won't find many birds that are more interesting.Many people are surprised to find out that owls cannot see in color. They see things around them in black, white, and shades of grey. In addition, the eyes of owls are fixed in their head. This means that, if they want to see from side to side, they have to literally rotate their head. As luck would have it, they can do this better than any other bird. It is estimated that owls can rotate their heads as much as 3/4 of a turn. This lets them virtually see 360 degrees around themselves by moving their head alone. Furthermore, each of their eyes move independent from the other. This gives them the unusual ability to simultaneously monitor and focus on 2 items of interest at the same time.
One of the main thing that owls are famous for is their impressive stealth hunting abilities. They primarily dine on tiny mammals, from time to time other birds, and field mice and other rodents. Its wings are formed in such a way that they dampen sounds in flight. This means that they can be remarkably silent when they attack. Prey often depends, to an extent, on sounds to give them warning of an impending attack. But, due to its stealth flight capabilities, the owl's prey often never know an attack is coming until it's too late.
Nature is one way which will help to make people feel much more alive. By getting close to nature, many feel that problems in everyday life can melt away - or at least be viewed in a greater perspective. The sound of the birds singing, or small animals scurrying around you whilst sitting in the great outdoors can be a truly comforting experience. In order to bring this to your home people could build a sanctuary for wildlife within their own back garden. This way, from the comfort of the home, you are able to sit and relax with a cup of tea and get pleasure from observing birds as well as other wildlife come and go.
With the increase in the number of fast-moving vehicles and the simultaneous development of road building technology, roadside bird mortality has become an increasingly important environmental issue. 554 owls of four species, namely Marsh Owls, the Red Data listed Grass Owl, Barn Owl and the Spotted Eagle Owl were collected on the stretches of the R550 and N17 roads in the rural areas between Springs and Devon in the East Rand of Gauteng Province during the period between October 2001 and September 2003. It was found that higher traffic speeds definitely having an increasingly detrimental effect on the owl mortalities. Weather conditions also play a role in mortality counts, with the mortalities being significantly negatively correlated to rainfall. Gravel roads had very low incidences of owl mortalities with the highest mortalities recorded along tarmac roads that are bordered by open grasslands or cattle grazing paddocks. Another factor influencing the road mortalities of the owls is grain that is spilled on the road during transport. This initially seemed to be the major factor in attracting granivorous rodents to the roads, and in turn, attracting the owls to prey on them.
So, if you're a wildlife enthusiast and are aware of owls that currently inhabit the location where you live, perhaps an owl box is a perfect solution to entice yet more wildlife to your garden! You too could enjoy the wonderful sight of owls in your garden as well as the pleasure of watching them grow as well as perhaps even have young. An owl box is a fantastic way to get to see more wildlife whilst feeling relaxed and refreshed as well - you too could feel your problems disappear as you watch the spectacular beauty of the owl!
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