THE SQUIRRELS HAVE MOVED IN

Let me start by saying that most of the snow has melted now thank goodness, but our track has been like a river over the last couple of days, but at least you can drive up it so back to work today.

I really should have posted this about 4 weeks ago but better late than never.
My local authority's biodiversity group were kind enough to give me a Barn Owl box last March after I'd spotted one up here whilst driving down our lane. Thomas and Luke my step son's can both climb like monkey's so we chose a tree to put it on with me obviously over seeing it all hoping that we could entice the bird to firstly roost there then hopefully later on nest in it.

 So it's been left undisturbed for nearly a year. Steve Carter who holds a schedule 1 license for Barn Owls and is an authority on birds nest's and eggs told us to first monitor the box to see if any owls had taken up residance, which also includes checking for owl splatter and pellets at bottom of tree. None of this was evident so oldest step son Thomas checked the box for me and this was what we found:-

The squirrels had moved in! Although I like a cute squirrel this box was supposed to be for Barn Owls so I insructed Tom to remove the contents in the hope the squirrels would make a drey elsewhere and we'd get an Owl in there. I think it could be a bit late now but fingers crossed you never know. Steve and myself also put a Tawny Owl box up in the wood below our house. We have got a resident Tawny Owl population around our area and I have seen them flying around the house so here's hoping.

One of our resident squirrels that were squatting in the Barn Owl box.