Tipton's Croft

A field in Shropshire, England

Month: June 2020

  • Four weeks old

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    28 days since the first egg hatched and both remaining hootlets are doing well. A good night of hunting last night with even the dad bringing back food for the youngsters. They’re getting bigger, more boisterous and feathers getting longer.

    The two hootlets wait for dad to return.

    The younger hootlet isn’t ill, just trying to get some sleep!

  • Mud pies

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    A flock of house martins has descended on the lake to collect mud for their nest building. We thought they were swallows but the white rump, shorter tail and lack of red on the face = house martin.

    Tipton’s Croft isn’t always about owls!

  • First feathers

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    Day 27. The two furballs are getting bigger, and now showing the first signs of feathers underneath the fluff. Too big now for the mother to sit on and she has to endure constant attention-seeking behaviour. Hunting is still not great so we are having to carefully supplement feed them (mostly with field mice that we are catching in the field).

    Watch for the mother preening her flight feathers and then one of the owlets trying to help by imitating this behaviour.