Rural Roots Sunday - A Surprise Adventure in Rural Elk Grove

…The Rural Area is valued in our community for its aesthetic and cultural significance, as well as the economic and educational opportunities that agriculture provides. Our commitment to maintaining the Rural Area is clear and codified in core planning documents…” Elk Grove General Plan, December 2023

We are fortunate to live in the rural area of Elk Grove: 

Our two-acre property has enough room for our chickens, our two trail-horses, a garden and a small pond.  We have had wild ducks visit our pond over the years. There is a seasonal creek at the back of the property, and we put up a couple of wood duck boxes on the nearby eucalyptus trees years ago.  The boxes hatched out many ducklings every spring.  I once was lucky enough to witness “Ping-Pong” sized ducklings jump out of the box, fall 15 feet to the earth below, scurry through the tall grass and into the creek to their beckoning mother. An amazing sight!

One year, while spying on the boxes with my binoculars, I noticed that the hole in one of the boxes was different?  I zoomed in to see that it was now larger and now round instead of oval!  ???   I kept up my surveillance for a few minutes and suddenly a face appeared in the opening . . . a barn owl! I was so excited to see an owl.  This was the year that our pasture and yard had been taken over by Voles, and now we had a natural exterminator!

I became obsessed with spying on the owl box.  However, after a few weeks, I no longer saw the face in the opening and began to worry.  I convinced my husband to get the tall ladder so I could peek inside.  I was startled a bit at the sight of a single owlet, looking up at me with a so otherworldly face! 

Days went by and I still hadn’t seen the face of the adult owl.  I convinced myself that the baby owl was going to die and that something horrible had happened to its mother.  After much discussion we decided to detach the box from the tree and take owlet “Sheldon”, still in the box and seat-belted in our pickup truck, to the Wildlife Rescue on the old McClellan Air Base.  During the hour-long drive “Sheldon” was hissing like a snake and making loud clicking sounds.

When we arrived, the ladies took the box to the back room to examine the owlet.  After a few minutes they returned with the box and reported that “Sheldon” was a very well fed and healthy owlet, and we should hurry home and put him back on the tree as soon as possible. We learned that both parents feed the young and come back mostly at night to do so.  Did I feel foolish?  Yes, I did. 

Moments after reattaching the nesting box to the tree the mother owl did a fly-by. I wondered how many of those she did while we were gone.  The purchase of a wildlife camera set my mind at ease.  So many pictures of the parents bringing Voles to the waiting in the box “Sheldon” night after night.  Eventually he fledged as a beautiful barn owl, now in the nearby trees, but still calling out loudly in the dark for more owl food.

The owl pair came back to their box for two more springs, hatching out two owlets the second year and three the last year.  Our yard and pasture were cleaned of voles and gophers. 

It is so important to keep our rural Elk Grove full of pastures and open spaces where nature can thrive!  And eat them Voles!

Renae B., Rural Elk Grove resident