Author Topic: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.  (Read 4730 times)

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Offline JW_Halverson

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For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« on: July 27, 2013, 11:57:32 pm »
Finished the interior decorating part of building new housing for an eastern screech owl we are getting later this summer.  I used elm bark to create a very natural background so the bird feels like it is camo'd up and invisible as the Predator!  I installed a platform perch for the little blighter when suddenly I was overcome with an urge to be artistic.  The result is meant to look like the entrance to a hollow tree.  In effect, it is the "painted on the wall door" that Wiley Coyote perfected.

Silly, huh?





Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline Josh B

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2013, 12:05:40 am »
Looks pretty cool!  I hope that a little toy train don't come rumbling out of there and run over your screech owl! :o ::) Lol!  Josh

Offline mullet

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2013, 12:24:48 am »
That's cool, JW. Josh, that's funny, too. We live right in the middle of town and have had a family of Screech Owls in our front yard for close to 15 years.
Lakeland, Florida
 If you have to pull the trigger, is it really archery?

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2013, 12:47:56 am »
Looks pretty cool!  I hope that a little toy train don't come rumbling out of there and run over your screech owl! :o ::) Lol!  Josh

*Smack to the forehead*

Never thought of that!
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline chamookman

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2013, 04:26:40 am »
Ah - that would be the ACME hole in tree - Meep, Meep  O:) ! Bob
"May the Gods give Us the strength to draw the string to the cheek, the arrow to the barb and loose the flying shaft, so long as life may last." Saxon Pope - 1923.

Offline stickbender

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2013, 06:32:34 pm »

     Cool!  Are you going to paint the perch in a bark camouflage , so he doesn't feel like he is being outlined?  Also a little warning crossbar for the little train. ;)  Or........you could repaint the black part like a wooden door, and a little  Keebler name plate on it. ::) ;) ;D ;D ;D  In ....fact.... you could name your owl Keebler! 8)  Yeah, that's the ticket, yeah. ;D

                                                                    Wayne

                                                             

Offline Jeanette

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2013, 12:55:19 am »
it needs an elf or gnome (?)

Offline stickbender

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2013, 03:59:50 am »

     See, even Jeanette, agrees. ;)  See if you can get a little Keebler elf, to set on the edge. ;D

Maybe if you email the Keebler cookie company, and tell what you are doing , they just might send you a little Keebler elf to sit on the shelf of the perch.  Hey it's worth a try. ;)

                                                             Wayne

Offline WillS

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2013, 07:57:20 am »
I used to do this kind of stuff for all my reptiles.  Yours looks ace!  Love the elm bark.

When I did mine, I covered a backing piece of hardboard or something with expanding foam (the stuff that comes in the aerosol can) and pushed bark into the wet foam.  When it sets it goes hard like polystyrene and I would coat the exposed foam in silicone and push dirt and sand into it to fill the gaps between the bark.

I used the fake modelling moss and lichen you can get in model railway shops to finish it off, with some dried mushrooms you can get on eBay for pennies. 

I probably went a bit over the top, especially considering the fact that reptiles are just as happy with kitchen roll and toilet tubes as long as they can hide!

I thought about doing it for those guys who play wargames, like the little figures you can paint and stuff.  They tend to buy most of their stuff and it costs a fortune.  Maybe you should start pitching background ideas to them!

Here's a couple of mine, one with a fake rock wall, and one more jungle-esque with bark and foam







Hope you don't feel I've hijacked your thread! Don't get to show 'em off with people who do the same thing very often!
« Last Edit: July 29, 2013, 08:01:44 am by WillS »

Offline Buckeye Guy

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2013, 10:33:07 am »
I think he can dodge the train !
But he is gonna bust his head a million times trying to get in there !
Good job JW !!
Guy Dasher
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Offline Pappy

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #10 on: July 29, 2013, 10:43:52 am »
Thats what I was thinking Guy,hope he don't try and fly in. :'( :'(
   Pappy
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Offline stickbender

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2013, 06:11:17 pm »

     Like I said, paint a door on it, with the keebler name plate.  That way, he or she will know, hmm, that door is still closed. ;)  Of course it probably wouldn't be wise for the little keebler elf to open the door either..... :o :P ::) ;D ;D ;D ;D

                                                                     Wayne

Offline Thesquirrelslinger

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #12 on: July 29, 2013, 06:33:32 pm »
my mom and i passed a Keebler distribution truck on the highway coming back from the pool. i started laughing.. and my mom was like what the heck?
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"

Offline stickbender

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #13 on: July 29, 2013, 11:00:33 pm »

     Squirrel Slinger, just tell her it's a man thing, she wouldn't understand......
Let us know how that turns out..... >:D ;D ;D ;D ;D

                                                        Wayne
   There, you see J.W. it's like Karma, him seeing the keebler truck and all.......  the door, J.W. the door, see it, be it, make it happen number one! ;) ;D
Is this little screech owl, a male or female?  Are you going to get it a mate?

Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: For Hobbit/Fantasy Fans and raptor afficionados.
« Reply #14 on: July 29, 2013, 11:18:19 pm »

     Squirrel Slinger, just tell her it's a man thing, she wouldn't understand......
Let us know how that turns out..... >:D ;D ;D ;D ;D

                                                        Wayne
   There, you see J.W. it's like Karma, him seeing the keebler truck and all.......  the door, J.W. the door, see it, be it, make it happen number one! ;) ;D
Is this little screech owl, a male or female?  Are you going to get it a mate?

There is no way to get a permit to breed screech owls.  Doing so would get our Educational Permits jerked by the USF&W.  The one we already have is DNA tested and known to be a female.  I could have saved the money, the bird frustrated the hell out of me and had me wrapped around her little talon immediately upon meeting her.  Yeah, female.  The one on the way is on the small end of the weight range for this species so is likely a male. 

In raptors the females are generally on the larger, more aggressive, and the better hunters.
Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.