Sonairte Ecology Centre providing nesting boxes in the woods for endangered owls
By Andy Spearman
Over the years Mosney Village has offered a Céad Míle Fáilte to thousands of people from around the world seeking refuge from conflict or natural disaster. Recently though, they have been preparing for a completely different type of visitor – owls.
These beautiful but elusive birds and mostly nocturnal so most of us have never seen one outside of captivity. Sadly their natural habitat is shrinking all the time due to woodland being cleared for building and agriculture and also the more widespread use of pesticides.
Barn Owls eat small mammals such as mice and favour mature woodland where they often live in crevices in trees.
Last week two men were hard at work on a cherry picker in the woods at Mosney fixing owl boxes to tall trees in the hope that they will soon attract owls to nest in them.
Damien McGroarty and Mark Gorman work at Sonairte, the National Ecology Centre in Laytown which has been promoting a love of the outdoors, organic produce, eco-awareness and sustainable living for the past 30 years or more.
Having decided to get involved in the owl project they looked around for a suitable site in the locality and hit upon the woods at Mosney as the ideal location.
The management team at Mosney were delighted to accommodate the initiative and last Friday operation owl swung into action with several staff members watching on as the new owl homes were installed.
Quite how the owls will know the boxes are there for them to nest in is not exactly clear but it has worked in other sites around the country and in the UK.
Asked how they can be sure that it will be owls that make their homes in the boxes and not other species such as pigeons or blackbirds, Damien said they’d erect signs saying: “Owls only, no pigeons or blackbirds allowed.”
He was joking of course, there is no way to stop other species from nesting in the boxes but owls, Barn owls especially, are more likely to use the boxes as they don’t make nests and the boxes resemble the hollows in trees where they make their homes.
Mosney has always been a very welcoming place and continuing in that tradition was Suzie O’Connell who was our host for the time we were there.
Suzie just loves her job in the Mosney Village Community and, as she escorted us back to the reception it was abundantly clear that she is also much loved by the residents.
She knows all of them, young and old, by name and has a greeting for all. Young children especially came up for a chat.
It reminded me of the last time I was in Mosney which was a couple of years ago and President Michael D. Higgins was presenting Gaisce Awards to several young people in the Village.
The enthusiasm was infectious on that occasion also and you could see that Michael D was enjoying every minute of it.
We can only hope that the owls in the woods get along as happily as the other residents in Mosney.
