Winter’s bare trees allow for good bird watching, especially when it comes to the local raptors. It’s also the time of year when we prepare to host Eastern Screech Owls, Megascops asio, as they court, breed and fledge their young in the Red Oak tree in our back garden. We’ve been privileged to observe these shy beauties for the last 8 years and certainly hope that they once again choose our back garden for their home territory in these next few months. I haven’t seen an owl yet this season and I’ve missed them this winter. Once in early October and then once more in early November, I heard a Screech Owl whinny announcing to others this is MY territory!, but I haven’t heard the common owl trill as the owls are living their lives: hunting, flirting with a potential mate, and then working with that mate to raise a family.
Since late November, I’ve spotted a young Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginianus sitting in the owls’ oak tree at night,
Not a great shot, but you get the idea.
…as well as occasionally scuttling through my garden early in the morning.
I also suspect the same opossum as the thief who had stolen a small board at the entrance to one of my honeybee hives–I found it in a corner of my garden, weeks after it went missing, dropped nowhere near the hives. Because I’d noticed bits of non-oak leaves and Mexican feathergrass shards caught in the branches just below the owl nest box, I thought the opossum might be squatting in the box, but I never actually saw her enter or exit. Squirrels have moved in to the nest box in the past and I hoped that a rogue opossum would be too large.
I hoped, but I was wrong.
As Screech Owl breeding season is nigh, we’re placing a new camera in the owl house this year because we enjoyed watching Mama Owl in her box last year–until the camera pooped out just after she laid her 5th egg.
This past weekend, the ladder out and up and tools at the ready, The Hub was up in the owls’ tree.
Steady there!
I remained terra firma and sollicita because 2016 wasn’t a great year for his bones–all 20 that he broke due to a bike accident and related glitches. That’s all we need: for him to tumble off the ladder in the service of wildlife watching. Thankfully, he didn’t tumble, but he did find an owl box interloper in the guise of this fella:
Actually, I suspect she’s a young, possibly pregnant, female opossum. What to do with a malingering marsupial snuggled in an owl nest box?
I have no objection to opossums. I don’t mind them sipping at the pond and bird baths, eating from the compost bar, or even rummaging through my garden, but I do mind, very much, that this one has decided she needs the owls’ house for her own.
Once the top of the box was removed, the opossum didn’t comply readily with our wishes for her to vacate the premises, nor did she cooperate when The Hub attempted to scoop her out onto a branch with a long stick. She peeked over the top of the nest box once or twice,
Too high up to jump!
Is there an opossum-sized ladder I can use?
…but decided that staying put and hissing was her best bet. With The Hub remaining up in the tree, we contemplated our options: leave the opossum in the house or scoot her out, forthwith? We decided that the best thing to do–for us, the opossum, and the nest box, would be to carefully lower the nest box to the ground,
Going down…
Almost there!
Thwarted–no more owl nest box squatting for you, missy!
…allowing her to safely waddle off,
…which she did, in a huff.
I admire her steadfastness at claiming the box and for the obvious efforts at collecting leaves and grass for her nest and I do feel badly that we evicted her from such prime real estate. But we didn’t build the box for her and I’m sure she’ll soon find another cozy spot in which to nest. Opossums are not the brightest of critters, but they are remarkably adaptable–they eat almost anything and can nest almost anywhere.
Opossums thrive in urban environments–like my back garden.
We’re leaving the nest box down for the week and plan to put it back up into the tree, camera affixed and ready to go, by next weekend. Learning about and enjoying the life cycle of the Eastern Screech Owls has been a great pleasure for us. I hope that we can continue with that this spring.
2016 Mama Owl
2016 Daddy Owl
As for Ms Opossum, I have no doubt that we’ll cross paths again.
My Gardener Says... 
What a fascinating post Tina. I hope the owls will take up residence and let’ s hope the cute opossum finds a nice new house too.
LikeLike
Thanks, Chloris. I’m positive the opossum will find a home–smart they’re not, but adaptable they are! As for the owls, I hope so too. I’m bothered that I haven’t heard any, but I’ll keep you posted!
LikeLike
Oh Tina, you have wonderful wildlife, I hope your Opossum finds a new home too, I followed your link, what an extraordinary creature. Good luck with your Screech Owls, how tall is your tree – your husband needs to have a hard hat on!
LikeLike
Opossums are a bit maligned here–sort of bottom of the barrel kinds of critters, but they are so adaptable, one has to respect that. I never mind seeing them, though they’re mostly around at night time. One day last summer, I saw a mama with a load of babies on her back–my cats were fascinated and so was I . She trundled along my back fence, eventually disappearing. The babies are quite cute!
As for the hard hat, maybe I should make him wear his bike helmet the next time he ascends! I think our tree is probably about 30 feet–we planted it in the late ’80s, so I think it probably qualifies as a mature oak. I have two in my back garden and they’re wonderful trees.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a great backyard story! I can’t believe the Opossum stayed in the box for the ride down.
LikeLike
Ha! That’s true, although if you think about it, opossums don’t move all that fast and it was a pretty smooth ride down and a gentle landing. She just waddled off, only stopping for a few seconds to stare down the orange tool cart before moving along.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re a good story teller, Tina! fun to find this one this morning 🙂 It’s neat that you’re open minded about opossums. Hopefully both will take up residence … and we will find more stories here.
LikeLike
Thanks, Hollis–it was a good story to tell. I’m just fine with most critters–rats and roaches the exceptions :)–I do home Ms. O finds a cozy spot somewhere!
LikeLike
What a great story about the opossum Tina. I clicked on the link to read more about them, quite an interesting animal, and perhaps their bad PR is not all deserved. I hope your opossum finds a new home and the owls return this year for you.
LikeLike
Thanks Sue and I agree that they’re interesting animals. I feel confident that she’ll find a new home, but a little less confident about hosting owls this year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We had possum problems last year when my first crop of beautiful peaches we ripening. Our possum was not as lucky as yours. We have 2 peach trees, and about 75 to 100 beautiful peaches on each were just too tempting for the possums and raccoons. We ended up with less than 2 dozen. This year, I’m putting up electric fencing.
Additionally, we had a thrasher eat all my strawberries, 3 raised beds, I only got about a quart. Momma bird ate the berries before they were even ripe. I put netting up the year before because the chipmunk got into them, but he at least shared. I didn’t put the net up last year because the foxes in resident cleaned up all the chipmunks. Netting will be used this year!
I hope your owls return. We have them here too, I love listening to them.
LikeLike
Wildlife will eat those juicy fruits, it’s one of tge hazards of planting around them, but it is frustrating. I hope I get owls too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great story. It seems like you handled the opossum in the best way possible. I enjoyed your description and photos. I hope the owls will be back this year!
LikeLike
Thanks, Beth. I know Ms. O was annoyed, but she’ll find other digs.
LikeLike
Hi Tina, thanks for the post. I heard or read your piece on owls a few years back, knowing how much owls mean to you, I hope your owl home is filled with owl love this spring…looking forward to your posts…
LikeLike
Hi Karen! You’re more than welcome and I hope an owl couple raises their family here, too.
LikeLike
Oh wow. What a dilemma, but it sounds like everyone should end up happy. I take it that you hope the break with the box at ground level will result in fixing the opossum’s mind elsewhere. Good luck with the owls.
LikeLike
I sure hope everyone is happy and well-homed! I haven’t quite decided whether or how I’m going to close the hole to the nest box. Of course, with the camera installed, I’ll be able to see who’s in there!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a good thing she was careful and discovered that the possum had settled in the nest box of the owls and was able to dislodge it. Let’s hope you find a good place to nest. I hope the screech owls aniden this year in their nest box and bring forth all their chicks. The story is told visually through its beautiful photos. Greetings from Margarita
LikeLike
I do hope the opossum finds a new home and that the owls come back to the nest box this year. I’ll let you know!
LikeLike
I confess a fondness for possums. They always seemed a little snarly to me, until one saw me approaching my car, took fright, and “played possum” right by the car. It was a huge one, but it was a scardy-possum. I finally took pity and walked away. Eventually, it got up, shook itself, and headed off into the woods.
A friend in the hill country fights them for her persimmons every year. In some regions of the country, the creature spends so much time gorging on the fruit the trees are known as “possum wood”. Audubon pictured the Virginian Opossum in a persimmon tree, and an old American folk-song celebrates the relationships among the Possum, the Persimmon and the Raccoon.
“Possum up a ’simmon tree, raccoon on the ground,
Raccoon said, “”You rascal, shake them ’simmons down!”
I’m glad you got your possum down, and I really hope you get your owl family back. It’s probably good to leave the box down for a bit. It gives the lady possum a change to come back, check, sigh, and waddle off again!
LikeLike
I like your car vs. opossum story! One of our dogs (Kilian, who died some years ago–sniff) was a master of opossum divining. Several times he “vanquished” one, looking at us with such pride at his “kill”–we’d bring him into the house and the “playing opossum” opossum would then stand up, shake him/herself and waddle on the next adventure. Mostly, Kilian just drooled on the opossum prey, so no opossum was hurt! Kilian never caught on. 🙂
I can imagine that both opossums and raccoons really enjoy persimmons–add squirrels in that mix, too. Good luck to your friend, in her protection of persimmons.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am still alarmed at all those broken bones. Crikey. The thing about wildlife is that it never reads the book which says ‘this is for hedgehogs’ ‘this is for owls’ etc. Our wilder friends just choose their homes irrespective of our wishes, which is lovely, but frustrating if you are looking forward to owls. I hope she finds somewhere splendid to shelter and that your owls return.
LikeLike
Crikey is right! He’s recovered, but has some accident prone tendencies…
You’re so right that wildlife generally don’t read our playbooks, but I’m sure the divine Ms. O will find a place–there’s plenty of good evergreen hedges and outdoor tool sheds in which she can snuggle.
LikeLike
Pingback: Undercover | My Gardener Says…
Pingback: Boarded Up | My Gardener Says…
I stumbled across your post when I was googling whether an owl can kill a possum. Just this evening on our owl box camera I saw a possum snooping around the opening to our box. We have a mother and the father has arrived, and so we are concerned that they may have eggs in there. They are likely out hunting because it’s 10:45 PM, and I’m trying to figure out how to keep the possum away from their box. I was considering sprinkling fox you’re around the base of the tree, but given what great climbers possums apparently are I’m not sure that will help. If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them!
LikeLike
I’m not sure I have any words of wisdom. When we’ve had opossum in our owl house, we evicted, then closed up the house for a few days. Sometimes they’ve returned, sometimes the eviction encouraged them to move on. My guess is that your owl couple will take care of the interloper, but I suppose it depends upon how stubborn the opossum is. I wish you all good luck–I don’t mind opossums, but to have owls in the garden, that’s really special!
LikeLike
I agree with everything you said. I certainly don’t mind the possums, I just don’t want them interfering with my sweet owl couple. We’re going to let nature take its course and not introduce anything not part of the natural cycle. Fingers crossed we get to see owlets in a couple months!
LikeLike
Let me know how things pan out. I’m afraid that our owls days are done. Sniff. I’m sure the winter warblers and other birds aren’t so sad, though. 🙂
LikeLike