Nine new appearances so far this year. Some likely from seed we’ve sown but not all.
New wildflowers
Category: Barn Owls
Hooty check-up time
Seven weeks old and time for John from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group to come and weigh, measure, ring and undertake an expert assessment of our two owlets. One is male, the other female and both are good weights and healthy, though somewhat grumpy for being disturbed in the middle of their sleep.
Thank you John!
First look at the world outside
The owlets can now jump up and reach the entrance to the nest box to see the wide world for the first time. Not long before they get weighed and measured: more photos to come soon.
Five weeks old
The two barn owlets are 35 days (five weeks) old and their proper feathers can be seen growing under the warm fluff and they’re developing the familiar heart-shaped face. In another two weeks we hope the owl expert to come and check them over, and we’ll have a chance to see them properly for the first time.
Two down
Only two owlets left but they’re doing well. The spell of rain (barn owls can’t fly in the rain) at night when the little ones were most vulnerable meant a low food supply. But the remaining ones have their downy coats to keep warm so the mother can hunt now too.
Two days later and the fluffballs are getting bigger, but the hunting still isn’t very good with more rain at night.
Still four
Still four owlets. Plenty of food too.
Later that day, the oldest owlet feel asleep on the side of their mother. All four are getting bigger quickly and are just beginning to develop their fluffy coats.
Three or four?
By now we may only have three barn owlets. It looks like the mother has rejected the smallest. Not unusual to do this if there isn’t enough food but nature can appear to be cruel at times.
Update: looks like the fourth owlet is OK. A few minutes later the mother turned round and carefully pulled it back under her with her beak.
Feeding time
The mother is busy feeding the four wriggling chicks: see how she is able to control them while holding a field vole (probably) down as she pulls it apart to feed each of them in turn, while having time to have some herself too.
Owlets
The first egg has hatched and there’s a little pink wriggly thing under the mother.
Even before the egg was hatched the owlet and mother were talking to each. Here you can hear them chittering away the night before: when the mother moves you can see the cracked egg on the right!
Update 28 May. Now there are two owlets, clear to see as the mother briefly left the nest.
Update 29 May. Now there are two owlets. Not sure where the adult male is today. There is spare food on the floor of the nest box so the family aren’t going hungry.
Not long now
Three days to go before the first egg is due to hatch. The mother is being so careful looking after the clutch.
Bored
The rain has meant the male can’t go out, so he’s bored. He’s decided to stand on the female’s back.
Fifteen minutes later and he’s still there.
Eggs
The female’s sitting down a lot.
Tada! This is why.
Over the next few days more appear.
That should be all. It’s more than we normally have and they probably won’t all hatch, and the ones that do certainly won’t all survive.
New owls
Last month a lone female took a liking to the new owl box and quickly settled in. Not long after, she started bringing a fella back and they are now officially a couple. No signs of eggs yet but it shouldn’t be long.
19 March 2023. Having set up a third camera on the ledge we’ve managed to work out the leg ring numbers on each owl. The male is a young barn owl, hatched last year at a site five miles from here, and the female much older, almost five years old and has come from a site about nine miles away.
New house
We’ve taken advantage of the nest box being empty over the winter to replace it with a new one, and have updated the cameras too. Now we wait…
We didn’t have to wait long, two owl pellets appeared overnight: proof of an owl visiting to check out the new accommodation, which must smell strange to them as it’s so new.
Almost goodbye
The older owlet has already dispersed and the younger one comes back occasionally to the nest box, but doesn’t stay. The end to a difficult but successful breeding season.
First flight
This evening the younger owlet found enough courage to leap off the nest box ledge for the first time, though rather inelegantly flew straight into a bush. She made a good recovery though and has now flown off to shelter from the rain in a nearby oak tree.
All alone
The older owlet has already learnt to fly and last night spent most of her time away from the nest box, leaving her younger sister alone to sit on the ledge in the early morning light, before going for a solitary daytime sleep.
Hungry
Out in the early morning rain the two owlets wait without success for food. We haven’t seen the adult female for weeks and the adult male doesn’t always appear often and certainly not when it’s raining. So we feed the hungry wobble-heads until they can fend for themselves.
A room with a view
Both owlets are now coming out of the nest box in the early hours of the morning to view the big new world around them, with their typical wobble-head behaviour as they try to understand what it is all about.
The first glimpse of the world outside
The older owlet, now about seven weeks old, manages to get up to the entrance to the nest box to have a look out, with the typical wobbly head trying to make sense of what she can see.