Category: Barn Owls

Day 59. Just a few hours later and the owlet takes its first tentative step out on the ledge. She doesn’t go any further though: not surprising as she’s come out of the safety of the small world inside the nest box to find herself twelve feet up a tree and no parent to guide her.

Day 58. One of the owlets takes its first look at the outside world. Not quite brave enough to come out any further, it has a good wobble-headed look from the safety of the nest box.

Day 56. John and Wendy from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group kindly came and checked over the two owlets: weighing, measuring and ringing each of them in turn. We are very relieved to find out they are both very good weights despite the difficulties they’ve had. The oldest is a female and the youngest a male. Great advice too from two very knowledgeable owl experts, thank you so much!

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The two hootlets are safely back in their nest box having passed their medical and endured a brief photo opportunity.

Day 54. The pair of owlets are looking much more like adults now with their new feathers and hardly any fluff left, just a thin ring around their waists. Not long before they’ll be flying.

The remaining fluff makes them look like ballet dancers

Day 50. The adult female came twice last night to bring food, not enough to sustain them but at least she hasn’t completely abandoned them. Today they have been busy shedding their fluff to reveal their new feathers, though the mixture of both does make them look a little odd.

Bad hair day?

Day 49. No sight of the adults for a few nights so the owlets are on their own, with only us to feed them (fortunately they’re happy to devour what we give them). The good news is they’re exhibiting typical behaviour for their age with lots of wing flapping and fluff going everywhere, revealing their new feathers. They’re preening each other too and for the first time taking an interest in the outside: the bigger one in particular looks almost ready to leap up onto the ledge.

There’s not a lot of room when they start wing-flapping!

Day 45. The pair are slowly getting bigger, and are now beginning to replace their fluff with feathers and also showing how flexible their necks are as you can see here! We’re still feeding them as the adults are rarely coming back to the nest box (partly due to the recent bad weather). Defrosted day-old chick anyone?!

Day 41. We had to do some essential repairs to the nest box, involving briefly removing the side hatch of the nest box, so took advantage of the situation to take this photo (having distracted them with a field mouse which you can see at the feet of the owlet on the left). Box repaired and really helpful to see the owlets close up: they look healthy, though likely small (it’s hard to tell).

Now more defrosting of baby chicks, groan.

Day 41. Almost six weeks old and feeding better with our careful supplementation of their diet with a mixture of fresh field mice from the field and defrosted day-old chicks (this is recommended!): I had to go out at 2am once because I’d forgotten to defrost the horrible things. Not my favourite of jobs but the owlets are responding and getting more active and more feathers too.

Day 40. The owlets are starting to get more curious and agile. One of them finds a fly on the wall fascinating. Well, you would if you’ve never seen one before!

Day 35. The two owlets are slowly growing up and for the first day the mother has stayed away – this is normal behaviour but we’re going to keep an eye out to make sure she does come back and feed them tonight. We’re still having to supplement their diet so they’re getting used to our minimal (and very careful) contact.

28 days since the first egg hatched and both remaining hootlets are doing well. A good night of hunting last night with even the dad bringing back food for the youngsters. They’re getting bigger, more boisterous and feathers getting longer.

The two hootlets wait for dad to return.

The younger hootlet isn’t ill, just trying to get some sleep!

Day 27. The two furballs are getting bigger, and now showing the first signs of feathers underneath the fluff. Too big now for the mother to sit on and she has to endure constant attention-seeking behaviour. Hunting is still not great so we are having to carefully supplement feed them (mostly with field mice that we are catching in the field).

Watch for the mother preening her flight feathers and then one of the owlets trying to help by imitating this behaviour.

Day 23. Better hunting by the female last night, thank goodness, so two juicy field mice for the hootlets’ breakfast. The older furball has been dominating the feeding recently so it’s good to see the younger getting a chance: here it is managing, with some difficulty, to down it in one.

Day 22. A difficult couple of days where we lost another tiny hootlet and are now down to two. This is almost certainly down to lack of food, with neither parent bringing back enough. The dad had been absent but has now returned to join them during the day, and last night the mother brought back a big fat mole. The remaining furballs are looking healthy and active but we may need to supplement feed them so are getting advice and keeping a close eye on the situation.

Being a parent is so stressful!

Day 20. The mother brought back two fat field voles last night so the three wobbleheads have fed well, and are now spending the day annoying her and each other. Still no sight of the dad though.

Not sure why video quality a bit poor – time to investigate camera settings.

Day 19. Neither parent brought any food back tonight (and the male has started staying away during the day) so the three owlets are getting hungry. Hopefully more luck tonight.

Day 18. The three remaining hootlets seem to be OK, but the dad is being pretty useless, going out all night and coming back without any food for them. The female had to go out last night so they didn’t go hungry. He even had the nerve to want ‘make babies’ again with her again today.

Day 16. Three owlets survived the night, we’re not sure about the fourth: it might be somewhere under the mother.

Day 16. It’s been hard to tell how many owlets there are in the fluffy heap in the nest box but this clip from last night shows all five eggs had hatched, but one of the youngest has died and the next smallest is unlikely to survive as it is too young to fend for itself (the adults are now no longer feeding each of them but just bringing in and leaving whole prey).

Five owlets but one dead (lying on the right of the others) and one unlikely to survive (it appears, struggling, from under the left of the largest owlet)