When we came back to Pader in March, we were a bit alarmed by the great (human-sized-sounding) rustling and screeching noises coming from our roof. The next morning, we discovered that we had barn owls who had taken up residence in our rafters...8 of them! Because there were babies, we didn't want to force them out, because we thought it would mean certain death for the baby owls. So we endured our uninvited guests...not with utmost hospitality, we must admit, as we were quite sleep deprived during the time of their stay, because of all the noise! The "learning to fly" stage was the worst... |
[As a side note, one of our neighbours put forward the suggestion that we capture them so that he could eat them..."Tastes like chicken!"...but we told him that by this time, the owls were too shy and would fly away the moment we opened the access to the attic.]
Headlamp at the ready, Mike ascended into our attic.
Mike measured the lengths of the spaces between the grass roof and the brick wall. Then we set to cutting up some extra window screen mesh that we had from a previous home improvement project. Then he went back up into the roof to start placing the mesh in the gaps.
Imagine our surprise when he saw this on his second ascent!!
"A what!?!? How is that possible??" I answered.
As impossible as it seemed, for we had no idea how it would have got up two tall stories and into our roof, there was a monitor lizard, chowing down on some the owl's unfinished rodent leftovers.
Though this one was pretty small compared to some, monitor lizards can be dangerous, because they have a sharp tail that they whip around when they are feeling threatened. Indeed, that's what this guy had just one before the picture above was snapped. So I handed up a long umbrella through the attic hole, and Mike tentatively chased the monitor lizard out of the roof.
But how would it get down?
I rushed outside with the camera just in time to get this shot...
What...A...Mess...!!!
At one point, after we had filled and dumped about 5 basins of straw and rodent remains out in our field, Mike commented, "I'm not exactly blown away by the sanitary hygiene of these animals!"
That night, our efforts were mostly successful. But the owls did find an entry point, and two of them were with us for a couple more nights. However, following the very unappetizing work of cleaning up their leftovers, we were quite keen not to let them stay any longer. So Mike went up a few times over the next few days to reinforce the spots where they were trying to get in.
For a couple weeks, I think they weren't too thrilled with us. Sometimes we'd hear them perch under the overhang of the grass roof and try to get in. More often, they would sit on our banana trees, about 3 metres from our bedroom window, and make their screechy noises. CHHHHEEEEEE! CHHHHEEEEEE!
But as I write now, we've been owl free for a few weeks, and they have abandoned their habit of perching on our bananas. I think we can now declare it a success. (Thank You, Lord!!)