Short Eared Owl v. Kestrel on Sheppey

[KentYeti]

Considering the weather I'm not sure why I went to Capel Fleet today. But I'm glad I did. Some time watching the daily dust up between the resident Kestrel and one of the Short Eared Owls.

And then a very pleasant couple of hours with WAB's snake, getting to know that wonderful Island a bit better. Many thanks indeed for that snake.

But the weather really was not good. Very dull, low cloud mist and fog.

The only way I can possibly even think of showing Kestrel v Short Eared Owl is by editing three photos onto just one web page sized image.

I did see the same confrontation in sunshine a few days ago, but didn't capture the essence of the conflict: ie. legs down, talons at the ready in such close proximity to each other.

Here's hoping....................



I wonder if the Kestrel will tire of this and eventually just accept the new arrivals?

Cheers,

Bryan

[RobinP]

I've seen this locally too, the Kestrel harried the SEo until it dropped its vole and the Kes caught it in mid-air!

Great stuff.

Robin

[RoyW]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

I wonder if the Kestrel will tire of this and eventually just accept the new arrivals?

Unlikely, because RobinP almost certainly has it's motives worked out:

Originally Posted by RobinP

I've seen this locally too, the Kestrel harried the SEo until it dropped its vole and the Kes caught it in mid-air!

It is a fair bet that the Kestrel was looking for the oportunity to steal prey off the SEO (though in this case the Owl didn't seem to have anything). Kestrels also regularly steal prey from Barn Owls when they are out hunting during the day.
It's called Klepto parasitism - which I think is a great term!

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by RoyW

...... Kestrels also regularly steal prey from Barn Owls when they are out hunting during the day. It's called Klepto parasitism - which I think is a great term!

This kind of Kestrel activity can have a serious impact on Barn Owls.

On a local farm there are 4 Barn Owl nestboxes, all within a few hundred metres of each other and all of which have been used by nesting Barn Owls over the last few years (though obviously not all at the same time).

2 of the boxes have also been used by Kestrels and this summer we had the situation of Barn Owls using one box whilst Kestrels used the next closest box only about 100 metres away.

The Kestrels had 6 eggs hatch compared to the Barn Owls 5. However, the young Kestrels (all 6) fledged much earlier than the Barn Owl chicks so that for a few weeks there were no less than 8 Kestrels (ie. 2 adults and 6 fledglings) flying around the area.

This put tremendous pressure on the parent Barn Owls and seriously hampered their ability to feed their young before dark and/or after dawn as bringing food in through 'Kestrel alley' obviously made them vulnerable to being robbed by the Kestrels.

So much so, that for several days I saw no feeding whatsoever by the parent Barn Owls during the hours of daylight, with their young apparently only being fed during the few hours of darkness.

The almost inevitable result was that although all 6 young Kestrels were raised successfully, only 2 of the 5 Barn Owl chicks fledged. From the remains in the Barn Owl nestbox it would seem that the smallest BO chick was eaten by an older sibling but one can only assume that the other 2 died of starvation with the older, bigger chicks presumably taking what little food was being brought in by the parent birds

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers, Barn Owls and Avocets)

[KentYeti]

Not nice to read that Jeff, but that is how nature works I guess.

Thankfully that didn't happen with the five young Barn Owls in the nest box at Elmley this year. Despite the fact that the tree the box was in was used a lot by the resident kestrels.

From watching the Barn Owls hunting to feed the juveniles in July I got the feeling there was a very great deal of prey around. The speed of return to the nest box by the adults at times was breathtaking.

But since the juveniles fledged and the adults have returned to the nest box I have seen one of the kestrel rob one of the Barn Owls of prey.

Not out today, dull and foggy. But the forecast tomorrow is much better, so I plan to go and see if I can photo that confrontation in better light. Cue a clear blue skies day but no owls flying! LOL!

By the way. I haven't seen a SOE actually robbed yet. As they are only feeding themselves they have no need to fly off with their catch. They tend to stay down after a kill and eat it on the spot. Or that is what it looks like to me.

Cheers,

Bryan