tiptonscroft – Page 14 – Tipton's Croft

They come and they go

Our refugee barn owl seems to have moved on, and the two love birds (geddit?!) have moved back into the old nest box. Unfortunately the empty nest box is being eyed up by a jackdaw, though fortunately no signs of nesting in it yet.

The male barn owl is on the left, slightly smaller and paler than the female next to him. The jackdaw is the bird with the evil look in its eye!

Three of the best

A quick sort through our photo database reveals three of our favourite owl photos.

He’s a she!

The refugee has been making a habit of coming out and sitting on the ledge a few minutes before dusk, just perfect for a proper camera shot from the hide. Here he is in all his glory, only, erm, he is actually (we think) a she – the black spots on the flanks are usually only on the female.

Daytime canoodling

Three days of absence, no idea where he’s been (perhaps on his stag weekend) and we were getting a bit worried, but he’s back and they’re back busy preening each other and waiting out the latest stormy weather.

In this clip they get spooked by something outside and he goes out to sort it out – there’s a bit of noise and he soon comes back and they carry on as before.

Shrewsbury floods

Not directly related to Tipton’s Croft, though a reflection of how much rain we’ve had this winter, here are some photos we took of the recent floods.

“I don’t remember eating that!”

No, the owl’s not being sick, it’s bringing up a pellet (the undigested remains of its last meal, likely a field vole).

Preflight checks

The refugee has woken up and having a good stretch before flying off. Look out for when it delicately pulls each of its flight feathers through its beak.

Count the owls

One, two, and er, three! We have a new owl, who has suddenly appeared in the old nest box. Not sure where it’s come from, possibly a refugee from the recent storms. It’s sheltering in the box that the other owls were planning to use as a nest (rather than a roost), so we’re not sure how this is going to turn out.

Meditating the day away

It looks like the owls are settling in to the new nest box during the day, perhaps their old roosts have been damaged by the recent storms. There’s another storm coming, but tonight should be dry so plenty of opportunity to hunt.

This is the male, the female is tucked down just out of the picture.

Dozing

They’re both in the same nest box today, waiting for the rain to stop, the wind to drop and for night to come. Here’s sixty seconds of relaxation!

Cross owl

Something spooked one of the owls today while they were sleeping out the storm. You can hear the wind then banging on the nest box, perhaps twigs but more likely a squirrel, who wisely backed off (remember what happened to Squirrel Nutkin!).

Windy owls

Sheltering from Storm Ciara today, one owl in each of the nest boxes. Not sure why they don’t share the same box: perhaps one snores.

Crash!

Not a particularly elegant entry to the nest box, but here’s one of the barn owls settling in for a rest, oddly in the middle of the day, and in the old nest box which they’ve only been using at night.

Daytime owl

One of the barn owls has decided to spend today in the new nest box rather than roosting elsewhere as they have been doing. Not sure where the other one is – they were both in the old nest box last night.

Slow January

Not much happening, but the days are ticking by and getting ever so slightly longer. The barn owls are still visiting the nest box at night, often going there just after dusk and in and out until dawn. No sign of the tawnies, but we can still hear them in the woods nearby. The field is soggy, the lake gently overflowing, frost in the mornings and footprints of badgers and foxes, but apart from that all is quiet.