My lean times are over. Throughout March and most of April I have walked to feed the owls with barely a glimpse of them. I know they are present as the food goes each evening and occasionally I am gifted a fly past but with the females sitting on eggs and the males acting super secretive as to the whereabouts of the nest location I have usually been alone.
In the past two weeks all this has changed. I first noticed the Kestrels flying much closer when I left their food and the male is beginning to greet me after dark too. This tells me they undoubtedly have a young family to feed but as yet I haven't confirmed exactly where. The Little Owls are also much more noticeable. I hear them first, chattering loudly when the Barn Owls come too close and see them around the straw stack. These dapper little birds are remarkably daft when it comes to hiding their nest site and I think we have two pairs now. One use the nest box we made on the dutch barn end.The second appear to have nested deep within the straw bales.I know this because as I walked past the other evening they kicked up such a racket that I stopped to look. Sure enough, I noticed a deep cavity dropping down between the bales. We've had this before but the problem now is that it isn't our straw so we don't have the same control over what is moved and when. I approached the farmer who now uses the dutch barn. He took note of where the nest site was and agreed to leave that section until last. Its always heartening when others are so keen to help.
So, all that remained was for me to work out where the Barn Owls were nesting. In early April I had seen owls returning to the combine shed, nipping deftly through the door surround with the food I had left. I now needed to find out where the second pair was. Last week, after discovering the Little Owl site, I watched as one of the adults flew in for food under east nest box only for it to be pounced upon by a Barn Owl.Its chattering faded away and for a moment I wondered if it had been injured so I waited by the grain store to watch. The Little Owl took the hint from the larger bird and chose its tea from the shed roof while the Barn Owl, unaware of my presence ferried food up into east nest box. The Barn Owls have chosen to nest really close to each other, perhaps encouraged by the fact that I leave food directly next to both these nest sites.
I've watched the owls hunting and there seems no animosity between the two pairs. The east nest box male hunts to the west of the farm and down the bottom of the fields while the combine shed male takes the lush grass towards the beehives. I've watched them this week hunting in harmony, intent on catching voles for their growing families, and reassuringly they seem to be hunting well. There has, however been some territorial screeching after dark and my neighbour has heard Barn Owls to the north of us as we walk the dogs last thing. My hearing is appalling and I hang onto his descriptions as he picks out their whirring and screeching in the darkness. I consider whether these are last years youngsters still close and hoping to fly in for a free lunch. If it is it sounds as if our adult birds are none too happy about this. Of course, I would feed all of them if I could but sad as it seems they now need to make their own way in the world.
This week has been an anxious one but an amateur mistake on my part has at least given me clues as to the Barn Owl families. I ran out of food for them!! I'd rang my supplier last week to ensure a delivery on Tuesday but he couldn't oblige until Friday. I thought I would have enough but when I scrambled around in the freezer I found out I would be short. This meant that on Wednesday and Thursday I left only twelve chicks instead of my usual twenty. This is for two Kestrels, four Little Owls and four Barn Owls plus their families. Although the weather was good I worried for them. They were all much more noticeable and I watched as the males continued to hunt well ferrying voles back and forth well before dusk.
It was on Friday night when I took a stash of food now the chicks had been delivered and my camera and that I was greeted by a lovely sight. A female was perched on a recently fallen tree hunting in the late evening sun but, bless her, she was a mess. Immediately I realised that she was fresh out of the nest box from brooding her eggs and very young chicks. Because Barn Owls nest on pellet debris, the females emerge looking very grubby and I guessed this was why she looked so forlorn.She watched me with interest and I kept Max on his lead and we continued to walk a good distance away. I placed the food on the platform whistling and calling as I did so. When we drew level with her she flew over and immediately took , one, two, three chicks up to east nest box before disappearing inside. She was swiftly followed by the male bird who returned with a vole. He must have wondered where all the food had come from!
As I walked around te field I remembered another fact about females emerging from the nest site. In an attempt to clean up they sometimes choose cattle troughs to bathe in where they quickly become waterlogged and drown.I walked with trepidation to ours that is now used to water the garden and it was, indeed uncovered but thankfully there were no owls in it and I covered it over, aware that this female would be looking to clean up when dusk fell. As I returned to the farm I watched both males and our second female hunting the grass field. I left more food after dark and will continue to leave my regular amount, In twelve years I have never made this mistake before and will make sure that it never happens again.
No comments:
Post a Comment