AUSTIN, Texas — Students can find many different ways to spend the summer, but a pair of Central Texas high school seniors spent their summer helping owls.
Since May, they’ve been building owl boxes.
“We're creating a habitat for the owls because owls like to burrow into dead trees and, basically, what an owl box is doing is recreating that cavity,” 18-year-old Grayton Eustace said.
Eustace and Brady Lauer both love animals. Owls have a special place in Lauer's heart.
“I had an owl box in my backyard since, really, when I was born,” Lauer said. “We heard them hoot every morning, and it was just a great experience growing up.”
What started as a school project building five owl boxes for his school in sixth grade has now turned into a summer business for Lauer.
Eustace said he wanted in on the fun as his classmate.
“It’s hands-on work, and I get to help animals and create habitats for animals that are losing their habitats,” he said.
While owl populations aren't endangered in Texas, Jules Maron, the executive director of the Austin Wildlife Rescue, said with the growing development in Austin, dead trees that owls often nest in can become a target.
“If you're developing an area, those are sometimes one of the first things to go,” Maron said.
Maron said the rescue mainly takes in injured or orphaned wildlife, and it has already received 127 owls this year. She said the number of owls turned into the facility increases by 20% each year.
Eustace and Lauer wanted to help.
“The more land you take away from them, the more they get condensed, the more they fight, the more they just diminish the overall population,” Lauer said. “Having the owl box benefits them.”
The teens say it takes 30 minutes to build the box and 20 minutes to install it – an hour of work to give an owl a home.
Eustace said owls play a part in the ecosystem, like every animal does. He said owls play a predator role by eating small animals, mosquitos, worms and vermin.
He said he hopes their efforts teach an important lesson.
“People tend to just want to have yards that are clean-cut grass and look nice when someone drives by, but the important thing is you can help nature and be more involved with the ecosystem but also still maintain a good yard that looks good,” Eustace said.
If you find wildlife that may need help, you can reach Austin Wildlife Rescue at 512-472-945.