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Not so many this year, perhaps due to the long wet winter.
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All quiet
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Category: The PondSpring is late, the pond is still full and not much is growing yet.
The water is nice and clear thanks to all the rain
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New owls
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.
Two new barn owls: male on the left and female on the right 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.
Part of one leg ring (upside down but legible) 
One owl posing for a leg ring photo in front of the camera.
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That’s no barn owl
A tawny owl takes an interest in the nest box but realises it’s already occupied.
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Valentine’s Day
And the frogs and toads are gathering. The toads have appeared first, in great numbers, as they head towards the pond. Some can’t wait until they get there.
Two common toads can’t wait until they get to the water. 
Lots of frog spawn in the small pond, 19 February 2024. 
Common toads and strings of newly-laid toad spawn, 20 February 2024. 
Two common toads and a smooth newt, 20 February 2024. A gang of male common frogs writhing around a lone female (somewhere in the middle).
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New house
We’ve taken advantage of the nest box being empty over the winter to replace it with a new one, and have updated the cameras too. Now we wait…
We didn’t have to wait long, two owl pellets appeared overnight: proof of an owl visiting to check out the new accommodation, which must smell strange to them as it’s so new.
Two common toads and a smooth newt, 20 February 2024.
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The fish-eater’s back
The visiting heron took advantage of us being away for a few days. A beautiful sight but oh, the poor fish!
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Almost goodbye
The older owlet has already dispersed and the younger one comes back occasionally to the nest box, but doesn’t stay. The end to a difficult but successful breeding season.
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First flight
This evening the younger owlet found enough courage to leap off the nest box ledge for the first time, though rather inelegantly flew straight into a bush. She made a good recovery though and has now flown off to shelter from the rain in a nearby oak tree.
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All alone
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Category: Barn OwlsThe older owlet has already learnt to fly and last night spent most of her time away from the nest box, leaving her younger sister alone to sit on the ledge in the early morning light, before going for a solitary daytime sleep.
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Hungry
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Category: Barn OwlsOut in the early morning rain the two owlets wait without success for food. We haven’t seen the adult female for weeks and the adult male doesn’t always appear often and certainly not when it’s raining. So we feed the hungry wobble-heads until they can fend for themselves.
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A room with a view
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Category: Barn OwlsBoth owlets are now coming out of the nest box in the early hours of the morning to view the big new world around them, with their typical wobble-head behaviour as they try to understand what it is all about.
