Category: Barn Owls

All going well, with the male hunting well at night in the good weather.

Three eggs so far, the owls are doing well with good hunting thanks to the good weather at night.

The female can’t go hunting now, so the male does it for her, bringing back a nice fat field vole, but expects and gets something in return: but he’s so keen he doesn’t even wait for her to have her meal first.

(warning: scenes of a noisy and graphic nature!)

At last the two barn owls have done what comes naturally and we now have two eggs in the nest box. Hopefully some more to come over the next few days, then a month of waiting before the first one hatches. At least something good is going on at the moment!

The two barn owls are spending a lazy Sunday in the old nest box. They’re staying in the old nest box more now, hopefully a sign that they’ve chosen it as their nesting site this year.

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.

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

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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