Category: Birds

WARNING. Do not watch if you have a nervous disposition. It’s not pretty and there’s not much romance involved but it’s what barn owls do in spring!

And now we have a pair of barn owls in the nest box, busy attending to each other and waiting the day out until they get get back out in the dark to hunt.

It’s the first time one of the owls has stayed the day. It’s a bit early to be too optimistic but a good sign that they might be getting ready to nest. We hope!

A brief visit to the owl box last night by a new pair of love-struck barn owls. We’re not sure where they are from but they both have identification rings on their legs so they’re definitely not the adults from last year. One of them could be one of the youngsters from last year’s clutch, but owls don’t normally stay where they were raised. Wherever they’re from, it’s good to see that the owl box has potential tenants.

We may have a new tenant in one of the nest boxes! This female (we think) arrived two days ago and is still there. We’re not sure if she is one of the adults from this year who has come back now the youngsters have dispersed. She might be completely new, possibly a dispersed youngster from elsewhere: we’ll keep an eye on her to see if she is ringed.

The nest box was empty six months ago! This thick layer of pellets, fluff and feathers needs to be cleared out each year otherwise it wouldn’t take long for there to be no room for the owls.

Now the barn owl boxes are temporarily empty it’s time to check them over and do any repairs needed. It might be time to replace the oldest box so we’re going to have a good look at John Lightfoot’s (from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group) range of new homes at Talon Nest Boxes. We have also identified a good site for one of his kestrel boxes: very tempting and it would be wonderful to have a different bird of of prey nesting in the field.

The three young owls are visiting the nest box less and less now as they gain their independence. They still appear from time to time to have a play around with each other and hiss hopefully for the adults to feed them but this may well be the last we see of them.

Our job may be done for these three but the nest box may only be empty for a few days so we need to get up there and clean it out and do repairs in time for the next tenants.

The three barn owlets are doing well and getting better at flying. They just need to learn to hunt and if this goes well in about a month’s time they’ll disperse to set up homes elsewhere. It will be a shame to see them go but go they must.

The youngest owlet comes out of the owl box to sit on the ledge soon after sundown, shortly joined by her two sisters who are roosting somewhere nearby.

They spend most of the night hissing and squabbling with a little practice flying but they’re not hunting for themselves yet so the parents respond to their calls and bring them food to keep them going. Just before dawn the older ones go back to their roosts, leaving the youngest on her own, at least until the next night.

They are getting quite noisy and we can often hear them from the other side of the field, at least five hundred feet away. They do need to start hunting for themselves as the parents won’t keep up the feeding: won’t be long though.

Here’s the youngest owlet settling down for a day’s rest after the night before. The field mouse on the floor is a clear sign she’s being fed well. The adults will have to stop doing this otherwise she won’t learn herself.

The three owlets are spending the nights hanging around in the dead oak tree, jumping from branch to branch and occasionally flying off as they practice their flying skills. There’s not a lot of hunting behaviour yet but the parents are still coming back to feed them so they’re not going hungry.