This year will be my 7th year having to deal with a Great Horned Owl and a Barred Owl here on Gobbler's Knob. The first couple of years were tough and we almost threw in the towel. But, with lots of support from other landlords who have 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt', we have reached an (un)-easy alliance with the owls.

Since many landlords either are in the same situation, or soon will be, I decided to make a video describing exactly how we built the cages that protect our purple martin systems. I've listed the materials and I also address some of the most common questions that we commonly receive each year about the cages.

 

Here are a few of the many videos I've recorded of the GHO attacking my colony. I did not arrive at deciding upon this solution easily - it was difficult and a lot of work.  If anything else would have worked, I would have done that first. But this was ultimately the only solution that saved my colony.

 

July, 2015: https://youtu.be/12lQopYkRdk

 

GHO attacks Trendsetter and gourd rack: https://youtu.be/RexdpWmqgLY

Building an Owl Excluder for Purple Martin Systems