Great excitement is in the air at the project site, because a Cape Eagle Owl has started moving in to one of the boxes at Growing the Future!!
The boxes are placed around the vegetable gardens specifically to entice owls, which are great for contorlling the numbers of mice found in the fields. If the number of mice gets too high, they can cause havoc by diggin up and eating seeds which are planted. They are particularly partial to large seeds such as squashes, pumpkins and melons. By using the wise old owls as pest control, we are able to steer clear of having to use pesticides.
We believe that the new visitor is a male owl, who is trying to make the nesting box as alluring as possible to all the available lady owls in the area, so hopefully we will be able to report on baby owls sometime soon!
Were very pleased to have these additions to the Growing the Future family; welcome!
led by the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom, who had the honour of cutting the carrot ribbon and opening the project.
