A field in Shropshire, England
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Day 63. The two owlets have spent the night outside, firstly watching the bats (perhaps for inspiration) and then climbing all over the oak tree, finally returning to the safety of the nest box at dawn. Tomorrow night might be the night for their first flight!
Here are a few video clips from the night of adventure
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Day 62. The two owlets have both ventured out onto the ledge for the first time, despite the wind trying to blow them off.
One of the adults even made an appearance with a fat ? (mouse, vole or mole, we can’t quite make it out) for one of the owlets.
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Day 61. The owlets don’t spend all day resting: there’s plenty of time for a bit of mutual preening and stretching of wings.
Six days old and the two stock dove chicks are already losing their fluff as their new feathers appear. In only three weeks time they’ll be fully fledged and will have left the nest.
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Day 61. One of the owlets having a good look around before settling down for a day of resting. They’re not rushing to learn to fly so we are going to carefully cut down on the feeding to encourage them to come out more.
Male or female hootlet? We’re not sure.
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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.
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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.
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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!
The two hootlets are safely back in their nest box having passed their medical and endured a brief photo opportunity.
Sooner than we expected: the stock dove eggs have hatched to reveal two tiny yellow wriggling balls of feathers.
The two stock dove eggs are being well looked after in the other barn owl nest box, with both parents taking turns to incubate them. Not long before hatching!
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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
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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?