Tipton's Croft

A field in Shropshire, England

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    The male has clearly learned how to do things right, as the female has just laid her first egg which she is now tenderly caring for.

    Update 25 April 2023: there are now three eggs.
    Update 29 April 2023: there are now four eggs!

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    The male barn owl is a little inexperienced. It’s good he brings back some food for the female but he has to learn to put it down before he can get on with the business of making little owls.

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    We now have a pair of greylag geese taking residence on the pond with the female making a nest on the floating island. These birds are HUGE!

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    Six Five new wildflowers identified so far this year. They may not be rare but they’re joining a growing list, now up to 106 different wildflowers her at Tipton’s Croft.

    Hairy bitter-cress
    Primrose
    Lords-and-ladies
    Red dead-nettle
    Daffodil (native)

    Make it seven six! Here’s garlic mustard (but not in flower yet).

    Update: we have misidentified the yellow archangel as a native wildflower. This one is actually an invasive non-native subspecies (Lamiastrum galeobdolon spp argentatum) so we are now busy removing it from the edge of the field. The pale patches on the leaves are what makes it distinct from the native variety.

    Invasive non-native interloper!

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    Oystercatchers today at Tipton’s Croft.

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    Extra camera fitted on ledge to try to read the leg ring number on one of the owls. Let’s see if it works…

    ANPR in action!

    Success! We now know the whole leg ring number and have identified the barn owl having hatched last year at a nesting site only about four miles from us.

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    The barn owls are at it already and there’s no doubt which one is the male. Several times a day too, so at this rate we should be seeing the first egg in a few days.

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    It’s now getting a little confusing. Today there are two owls in the nest box but one of them doesn’t have a ring on its leg so isn’t one of the two owls who have been visiting this week. So we now have at least three owls.

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    The two owls who have each been visiting the nest box seem to know each other a little better than we thought. They’re actually a pair and clearly like the nest box so fingers crossed that they settle in and do what owls do in spring!

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    The new owl has settled in for the day and has time to bring up an owl ‘pellet’. This is perfectly normal behaviour: it’s the undigestible remains of its last meal (such as a field vole or mouse). If the owl stays, within a few weeks the bottom of the nest box will disappear under a thick layer of these pellets. Lovely!

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    After a few weeks of an empty nest we had a visitor last night. Though a brief appearance, it was long enough to not only see the tag on the owl’s leg but also read its number, so hopefully we’ll know whether it is one of our previous owls or a new one. If it is new we’ll find out where it’s come from!

    Two days later and another owl appears in the nest box. This one also ringed on the same leg but the number is different. Unfortunately we can’t read the whole number so won’t be able to tell where it’s come from.

    Different leg ring = different owl

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    …or not subtle!

    One, two, three, four toads!