They serve a good cause
Owls and car spotters have quite a bit in common. Both like to stand by the roadside in search of a target, and both can cause dangerous traffic situations. By the way, the two are easy to distinguish: one shouts ‘oehoe’ and the other ‘wajo’.
A solution has in any case been devised for the owls along the road. Earlier this year, Rijkswaterstaat installed blue rollers on the hectometre posts along the A15 and A29. This prevents barn owls from landing on the boards.
How do the blue rollers on the hectometre posts work?
Barn owls like to land on the plates to spot mice and other treats. ‘We see that especially young inexperienced barn owls become victims of the sucking effect of passing traffic. If they sit on a hectometer pole and want to fly away, they are sucked in by the turbulence and end up on the roadway. […] When barn owls land on a roller, they cannot stand and lose their balance. They fly off again and can land on a safe seat post’, says Claudia Rodrigues, nature advisor at Rijkswaterstaat.
Where should the owls land now?
We assume that the owls eventually learn to land on the rollers and choose a different spot. Rijkswaterstaat installed seating posts about three meters high at the same time as the rollers. These are at least five meters away from the berm and serve as a landing place for the barn owls. The birds can safely hunt for mice from the perches. Rijkswaterstaat does not make any adjustments to the highway for car spotters, they are usually at a safe height on a viaduct or embankment.
The roller in action
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