Some wizardry needed to evict barn owls

June, and as for the weather, would say spring is going to show up just in time for summer. Plenty of snow still holding onto the tips of the Sierra so irrigation water is flowing nicely. Water wars can wait until late summer, and they aren't really even wars, just mumblings or slight teasing of fellow water users when we bump into each other in public. No water troubles now gives us time to deal with the Harry Potter episode up in the shop.

Owls, and lots of them are in the metal machine shop. Last night, He Who Does Not Like To Be Named In the Paper, had to go up to the shop to get a tool to fix the leak under the counter, where a dishwasher should be. As he walked into the shop after twilight owls rushed him like a scene in a Harry Potter movie. He could feel the air push past his face from the owls' wings warning him he was not wanted in the shop after dark.

There are at least two nests of barn owls in the shop and at least four really ugly fledgling baby owls making humorous attempts at flight. We give the owls wide berth liking them to keep the mice population in check, and because it is the law.

We have concerns though because they leave one heck of a mess on the machinery under them. And they fly everywhere so moving machines makes no difference. If these were brighter barn owls and actually lived in the barn things would not be such a concern. Hundreds of owl pellets would not hurt the hay and we would not have to smell them. You really have to be tolerant to put up with the rancid, pungent decay and ammonia smell these owls create.

Plenty of owl pellets on tools and equipment let us know the parents are doing a darn fine job of keeping everybody fed. But pretty casual about clean up. The baby owls we have seen hopping around, who hiss if we get to close, are so ugly, I'm surprised anybody wants to feed them. But a parent's love is blind and all babies are beautiful so forever feeding them are the parent owls.

We tolerate these owls not only because they are barn owls and you are suppose to protect them, but also because earlier this year He Who Does Not Like To Be Named In The Paper, and I read about Wesley, this wing damaged barn owl raised by a female technician at Cal Tech.

Wesley was described as very loyal, brave, smart (for a bird) and loving. We got sort of attached to Wesley and feel like we know him through the owls flying around the shop making a mess. But we don't.

We don't go near the owls if we can help it. Although He Who Does Not Like To Be Named In The Paper says in one more month out they go. He is going to build barn owl nests houses up in the old cottonwood tree and they will have to move there. Not sure how that eviction will go.

Our owls have pretty pointy beaks and sharp talons. They only tolerate us when they are asleep. I don't think they understand proper English like the owls in the movies. We will have to be more wizard than rancher to get this to work. But if it does, we will keep the wizardry powers to keep plenty of irrigation water running all summer long.

Marie Johnson's Hogwarts is located in Carson Valley.