A field in Shropshire, England
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.
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.
We’re not sure how many moorhen chicks there are, but there are at least three. They’re getting bigger, less like sootballs as they start to develop proper feathers.
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.
Three days to go before the first egg is due to hatch. The mother is being so careful looking after the clutch.
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.
A pair of moorhens have secretly made a nest and we now have seven (or eight) little ‘sootballs’ on the pond.
Definitely eight!
Found the cause of tweeting in the shed.
Five hungry little robins.
Update 15 May. Success as all five fledge and leave the nest.
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.
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Spring is late, the pond is still full and not much is growing yet.
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.
