Category: Animals

The oldest owlet is almost ready to start flying: it is now hopping up and down between the nest box ledge and the camera boom above it, encouraged by the second owlet. The youngest is still in the nest box, not quite ready to come out into the open air and join in the fun.

In a day or two the oldest will risk all and leap into thin air from the ledge for the first time and start flying.

Two of the owlets practice the amazing range of head movements that barn owls have.

The other owlet really can’t be bothered!

A big thank you to John and Wendy from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group, for coming round to check on our owlets. All three are fit and healthy with good weights and this time all three are female. They were quite well-behaved: soporific due to the heat and it being the equivalent of the middle of night for them.

Freedom Day and the oldest owlet ventures out onto the nest box ledge for the very first time. 50 days old and still covered with fluff, it surveys the strange thing that is the world outside.

Another quite day for the three owlets but they are beginning to get a bit restless: here’s one practising its neck exercises in front of the camera.

Sorry about the thumping noise – it’s a fault with the camera

Day 42 and the owlets are developing the typical barn owl heart-shaped face and they start to lose their fluff to reveal their new feathers.

Another week and we hope to have a visit from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group to check and ring the owlets: a great chance to see the three wobble-heads close up!

Now the three owlets are old enough (the oldest is 31 days old) the mother is roosting elsewhere during the day. We were able to turn on a third camera without disturbing them and this one gives a better view of the inside of the nest box.

So enjoy five minutes of the three fluffballs doing what they do during the day.

A perfect night for hunting and both the male and female took full advantage, delivering a total of fifteen juicy field voles and mice for the growing (and as you can hear, demanding) owlets.

Female 8, male 7!

The adults is hunting earlier and earlier as the owlets getting bigger and hungrier. Here the female dashes back in with dinner, so quick you can hardly see the field vole she has caught.

The oldest hatched 25 days ago and the youngest a week later.

After a few days of poor hunting this morning there is evidence of abundance, with a spare field mouse on the floor, so the owlets have obviously fed well during the night. The fluffballs are getting bigger and there are signs of their first true feathers coming through.

The oldest hatched 25 days ago and the youngest a week later.

The mother brings back a field vole for the hungry owlets and within the blink of an eye it’s gone. Question: who won the prize?! You may have to watch the video more than once to spot it.

Answer: it’s the largest owlet who grabs it and rushes to the corner of the nest box to swallow it whole, and it’s vanished even before the mother leaves the nest.