What’s a good way to attract owls to an urban neighborhood?

Q: A few columns back, you recommended owls to control the rodent population. Would you please share your ideas on how to attract owls to an urban neighborhood?

We’ve found that if we wash and wax one of our cars and park it underneath the streetlight in front of our house, the resident great horned owl will, without fail, show up and hang out on the light. We learned that owls are very messy eaters, and when they poop, it’s “go big or go home.”

In all seriousness, though, the best way to show your local owls some love is to refrain from using any kind of poison. Even the supposedly “safer” rodenticides containing warfarin and chlorofacinone are harmful to non-target wildlife, including owls. Rodenticides containing brodicfacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, and/or difethialone have been gr