BARN OWLS

I was lucky enough to be invited to an undisclosed Barn Owl site today with Stephen Carter and Lee Parsons. Steve is a schedule 1 licence owner for Barn Owls so he is allowed to check the nest and photograph the birds.
Barn Owls suffered quite a bit during the early spring with breeding attempts all over the country failing badly due to the freezing temperatures. The adult birds themselves had quite high mortality rates they  just couldn't find enough food in the cold weather to sustain themselves let alone a brood of hungry owlets.
The reports are now that Barn Owls are having successful late broods so should hopefully bounce back. They usually nest between April - June but have been recorded breeding in every month of the year except January.
On Steve's last visit there were 9 eggs in the nest which is really just a pile of the birds regurgitated pellets.



the nine barn owl eggs


On this visit there were only 2 chicks that had made it this far but they were very healthy and very sleepy with a small larder of voles to keep them going.

2 sleepy barn owl chicks

 We also saw the female adult bird as she flew out of the nest, a beautiful bird pity the photographs didn't do it justice. The light was pretty poor so I suppose we can't complain at least we got an image.



the female Barn Owl flying from the nest site



stunning bird pity about the pic's

Blurry Barn Owl

best shot of the lot of the Barnies backside

Big thanks to Steve and Lee and lets hope the weather is kind to the Owls and them 2 remaining chicks make it. Steve will be back at the site to ring the chicks in a week or two so I hope to keep you updated on their progress. Once again cheers fellas brilliant experience.