Giving a hoot about owls
Saturday is International Owl Awareness Day, but every day is a good time to think about owls. The International Owl Center in Houston, Minn., offers these tips to make our yards more owl-friendly:
• Use traps, not poison, to control rats and mice, to avoid poisoning owls.
• Take down soccer nets when not in use, to avoid entangling owls.
• Leave dead trees standing, if it's safe to do so, to provide nesting and roosting places.
• Keep cats indoors, so they don't harm owls.
Find more tips at internationalowlcenter.org.
Val Cunningham