The male joined the female earlier today and they settled down for a quiet afternoon together. It wasn’t all rest for the female though: her flight feathers needed some maintenance, the male needed to be preened (whether he liked it or not) and of course the eggs needed checking. Only then could she have a nap.

One more during the night.

Now the female is sitting on her eggs the male has to do all the hunting, but it’s going well so far (much better than last year). Here he is returning with a big fat field mouse.

The female has been a bit shy recently but today moved enough to reveal two lovely new eggs. The video shows how careful she is, delicately moving around while checking the eggs beneath her with her claws.

The female decided to move into the other nest box today, but didn’t bother to tell the male. Here he is having realised the old nest box is empty so he heads off down the field to find her, almost falling off the ledge as he does.

Yesterday something spooked the male, who launched himself out of the nest box without touching the ledge.

Here he is slowed down x 10.

We know this is the male because he then flew into the other nest box where the female was and mated with her. So clearly it is the female who is ringed, not the male.

We hadn’t noticed before but one of the owls is ringed. Two nights ago, one of the cameras on the other nest box recorded the male (we think) sitting on the ledge, clearly showing a ring on his right leg.

We’ll contact the Shropshire Barn Owl Group to let them know, as it may be an owl ringed by them. It would be fascinating to find out where he’s come from.

The male barn owl hasn’t quite got used to the camera in the nest box, which makes us think he’s not been at Tipton’s Croft before.

The barn owls are hunting well during the recent cold dry nights, coming back with a mix of field voles, field mice and other small mammals (and probably a frog or two). In this clip the male comes out and flies off, followed by the female who tries to call for him but can’t make much of a noise because her mouth is full. She then does what barn owls do very well: she swallows her meal whole. Oh yum.

Both the female and the male are resting in the nest box today, after a night of hunting and ‘making eggs’. Predictions are for an increase in the number of field voles this year (‘Barn Owls in 2020: an update from Colin Shawyer’) so hopefully plenty of food, and no need for us to hand feed the hootlets this year, we hope.

The new pair taking in their new realm at dawn before going in to sleep.