A field in Shropshire, England
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Day 12. Four hootlets, getting noisier and more boisterous as they get bigger. The mother is leaving the nest from time to time during the night, now that it is warmer and the owlets are developing their owl downy insulation.
The fourth owl (top right of the group) is very small in comparison as it was the last to hatch. It may well not survive as the adults would struggle to feed all four.
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Day 10. The female Barn Owl briefly left the nest box last night so we had a glimpse of the new hoots – three all lying in a bundle (one only just in view). A good night hunting – three field voles brought back by the male so hungry mouths fed.
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Day 9. We don’t know! At least three but the female isn’t moving from over them so we can’t see. They’re certainly making a lot of noise. Here she is chittering away to them while dad keeps an eye out.
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Day 6. All going according to plan.
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Day 3. The female briefly left the nest last night, revealing the scrawny little two day old hatchling. Turn up the volume to hear it calling for her to return, which she duly does.
The male has been spending most of the nights hunting for his new family, successfully judging by the field voles lying on the left in the nest box.
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Day 1. It’s been a long month of waiting, but this morning we had our first barn owl hatching. Both mother and baby are doing fine (father is wisely staying well out of it as you can see).
No view of the baby but turn up the volume and you can hear the egg cracking open and (we think) its first high-pitched call as the mother chatters to it.
