Bear in mind that wherever you mount them, you will need access to the box later to clean it out. Make sure your pole or tree will hold the weight of a ladder.

Lisa

The boxes are built deep and without a perch outside the hole so that no predators can reach the bottom of the box, where the nesting occurs.

Information I've read, states to put the nest box in a tree, facing south if possible. I didn't read which direction to face it, when my husband put ours up, 5 years ago. I've got it facing northeast so we can see it from our window. Of course, I'm in a fairly mild climate, zone 8a. Ours is about 9' off the ground because that's as high as we could put it with the ladder we have. After 5 years, I'm happy to report we have our first male eastern screech owl, inhabiting the box! As far as cats go, they're a major threat to the baby owls when they're born. Check out Chris' Eastern Screech owl cam site for more info. He's lost many of the owls to cats and recommends installing a sheet metal guard on the tree 3' below the owl box to deter predators and removing it once they're ready to leave the nest.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chris' Eastern Screech owl web cam

We ended up putting the nest box about 10ft up in a tree. It remained vacant for about a year with the exception of a few visiting squirrels. We are so fortunate to now have a screech owl in the nest box. The owl has been visiting the box since the summer.

That's cool. I hope he sticks around. The one that was roosting in the box we put up, disappeared after 2 months. I hope a larger owl didn't nab him as we found a squirrel dumped on our driveway a couple mornings after the screech owl disappeared and then a few nights later, my son saw a large owl, one house down from ours, flying across the road.

We have two eastern screech owls that visit our back yard every night now. We've lived here for 13 years and never saw them before. Does anyone know if this means they will stay, or could they only be here for one year? We're hoping it's a mating pair, and are planning to put up a box to encourage them to stay.

beatrice-from what I've read Eastern Screech owls do not migrate. When they find a nesting site they tend to stick around. Good luck and keep us updated on the pair!
Robin

We placed a nest box about 12 feet up in our pine facing West. We have a nesting pair of Eastern Screech Owls, and they don't seem to mind that they are so close to the house - about 20 feet from our patio.

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures of my nesting owls

Good for you back yard girl! Great shots of the owls.

Three years ago I built a screech owl nest box and put it in a maple about 15 feet above the ground. After a starling nest and two years of squirrels, a family of red morph screech owls have moved in. The tree is at the edge of a wooded area facing south toward a 20 acre area of open organic farm, some wooded area and open field. The fledglings can often be seen peaking out of the hole. I live in eastern Long Island NY.

Good for you tom. Please start a new thread and post photos of them if possible. I have had an Eastern Screech owl box up for 5 years and this spring was the first time we were fortunate to have a family raised in it. I got pictures of all 4 of the owlets as they left the box. I'll post some of them in a new thread, soon.

Several years ago I built and mounted a Wood Duck box on a tree near a creek near here. Checking it months later found a young Raccoon fast asleep in it! I ran him off, repaired the front that he had removed and put tin wrap on the tree. Sadly, I seldom visit the box, it is deep in a big thicket. I hope something is using it!

Well, julysun, you evicted the racoon, don't visit the box, and hope something is using it. The racoon was. As good a critter as any, I think. Live and let live.