Category: Barn Owls

The male barn owl hasn’t quite got used to the camera in the nest box, which makes us think he’s not been at Tipton’s Croft before.

The barn owls are hunting well during the recent cold dry nights, coming back with a mix of field voles, field mice and other small mammals (and probably a frog or two). In this clip the male comes out and flies off, followed by the female who tries to call for him but can’t make much of a noise because her mouth is full. She then does what barn owls do very well: she swallows her meal whole. Oh yum.

Both the female and the male are resting in the nest box today, after a night of hunting and ‘making eggs’. Predictions are for an increase in the number of field voles this year (‘Barn Owls in 2020: an update from Colin Shawyer’) so hopefully plenty of food, and no need for us to hand feed the hootlets this year, we hope.

The new pair taking in their new realm at dawn before going in to sleep.

At last, and not too late for breeding this year, a pair of barn owls have appeared. They arrived last night with a lot of fussing and mutual preening on the ledge of the old nest box. The female has settled in to the box for the day and the male is probably roosting somewhere nearby. Fingers crossed for hootlets this year.

We need to evict a squirrel from the other nest box to allow the owls to use it as a roost for when the old nest box gets too crowded (we hope).

Independent young female, GSOH, good income (mostly field voles and mice), has own spacious home, looking for similar-minded partner for mutual preening on moon-lit nights. If he brings the food, she’ll lay the eggs. Offer open to single male barn owls only: no pigeons, jackdaws or squirrels please.

We haven’t seen the male for four days, and today of all days the female is all alone in the nest box. There’s still a chance he’ll come back (he might have found a new roost to spend the day in), but on Valentine’s Day he should really be paying his girl some attention.

The two barn owls have now settled into the old barn owl box, having decided the other box isn’t quite up to their standards. The nights are long and we don’t see much of them but occasionally they come out together at dawn or dusk to survey their territory.

The two owls in the dim light of a winter dawn.

Today the barn owls have separated and are each staying in a different nest box. Not sure why: hopefully they’ll make up and will be back together tomorrow.

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The pair of barn owls aren’t out hunting all night: we’ve found that they’re also spending a lot of time in another nest box which until now was empty. They may be checking it out as as an alternative nesting site, or hopefully they will use it as a daytime roost and keep the first nest box as their nesting site: that way we will see a lot more of them in the spring.

The female gives the male some attention, preening his flight feathers for him.

There isn’t much to do but smooch.

The pair of barn owls are spending a lot of time during the day with mutual preening and generally enjoying each other’s company. They’re not doing anything more: it isn’t the right time of year for that and they’ve only just met!

Hooty has a surprise for you. We shall reveal all very soon!

And here it is!

Hooty has a boyfriend! He’s the one spreading his wings, and giving her a hard time. Turned up this morning, perhaps rained out of wherever he’s been roosting. Not the time of year for nesting so she may have to put up with him mucking around all winter.

The barn owl is getting a little more confident, coming out of the nest box earlier in the evening to have a good look around before flying off for the night.