Barn Owl Diary (with photos)

[witham]

There used to be another barn owl in our area which we saw regularly, it even used to come into our garden, then one day up on the river bank near us I found a dead one, I assumed it was that one as it stopped comming after that. A conservation group had been putting up large bird boxes at intervals along both sides of the bank and it was near one of them, fastened on the side of a building that houses a drainage pumping engine, at a place where we used to watch the owl swooping up from hunting along a big drain that runs parallel to the river, then across the strip of land inbetween to hunt on the bank. I had seen a Kestrel flying from the box and wondered if it pounced on the owl as it flew past, although one night there was a lot of bird noise, a horrible distress sound and the chuckling of alot of Magpies and I also wondered if they were the culprits, as I heard a story from a local character who used to come on our local radio that he had seen Magpies attacking an owl near where he lives.

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by pressld2

Well Jeff, considering that my question was basically "how long is a piece of string?" I would say that's a pretty fine answer! Dave P.

I did try Dave and if I may say so I think your intended approach is spot on. Oh and thanks for not putting any pressure on me

Garden Carpet - "Had I stopped and watched him would I have been breaking the law?" No, absolutely not Jaki - it's only an offence to disturb Barn Owls (and other Schedule 1 birds) whilst they're building a nest or whilst they're 'in, on, at or near a nest'. Clearly they will not yet be nesting at this time of year and so you could have stopped and watched your bird (and even disturbed it) to your heart's content and without doing anything illegal

m1.carson - that's a great shame Max and if you could have established that the Owl was actually nesting in the units, then blocking its access would have been an offence worth reporting to your local police force's Wildlife Liaison Officer.

witham - and that's another sad tale witham . It's also certainly true that Magpies often given Owls a hard time - a farmer friend of mine had a pair of Barn Owls nesting in a sort of attic right in the top of his turkey-rearing barn but one day he saw some Magpies mobbing one of the Owls and the Magpies subsequently raided the nest and destroyed the eggs

Jeff

[JeffH]

UPDATE (2nd March 2008)

Nothing major to report yet but things are certainly looking hopeful

Yesterday I called in at our local farm for some free range eggs and the farmer's wife told me that earlier this week she was walking by one of the Owl boxes (it's the one on the edge of the wood - the 3rd photo in my opening post) when she saw a white face appear at the opening. Later on she saw a Barn Owl quartering over the field that particular box looks out onto.

Of course it may just be a roosting bird but a promising sign none the less.

She also mentioned having seen a Little Owl several times on the edge of the wood. We know that Little Owls nested in the wood last year (and we think we know where) so I'm hopeful of getting some good shots of our smallest Owl as well.

Hopefully the Barn Owls will be pairing up over the next 2 - 3 weeks - I'll keep you posted.

Jeff

[rlchew]

Sounds promising Jeff .... please do keep us up todate with developments.

Richard

[stephen p]

Sounds good Jeff. Nice to have a local spy aswell Farmers know everything about the land around them it's great.

Keep us updated mate, it's sounding good.

Stephen

[JeffH]

*****NEWSFLASH*****

I called in at our local farm this morning for some free range eggs and the farmer's wife told me (with great excitement) that yesterday afternoon she saw TWO Barn Owls emerge from the nestbox on the edge of the woods

This sounds very promising indeed and I shall be doing a recce this evening.

More news as it happens.............

Jeff

[demicav]

That's fantastic, they're such lovely birds.

[John]

I feel a long running saga is in the making.

I look forward to the resulting diary entries Jeff. If they are half as good as the Kingfisher ones then we are all in with a treat.

John

Originally Posted by JeffH

*****NEWSFLASH*****

I called in at our local farm this morning for some free range eggs and the farmer's wife told me (with great excitement) that yesterday afternoon she saw TWO Barn Owls emerge from the nestbox on the edge of the woods

This sounds very promising indeed and I shall be doing a recce this evening.

More news as it happens.............

Jeff

[aeshna5]

Fingers crossed Jeff that this is the beginning of a happy family story with all the dramas that these things entail!

[JeffH]

Thanks all. Sadly I didn't get out to do my recce yesterday evening due to bad weather and I certainly didn't want to risk causing any disturbance to the birds in such conditions.

Today's not looking much better with very fine snow falling here at the moment (8 am'ish). However as soon as I have further news I'll let you know.

Jeff