Exceptional

 2024 has been an exceptional year so far and continues to amaze me.Our Barn Owls produced their first eggs in February and their first broods fledged at the end of May. They then began rearing second broods, confident that food was being delivered each evening and that they could rear their young successfully.

Every evening I watch our resident female. She waits patiently for me watching intently. There is something about her manner, about her attentiveness that tells me it is her and it warms my heart to see her each evening. She and her mate are now roosting in the combine shed and leave the door each evening as I approach. This tells me that their young are a good size as there is no longer room for the parents in the nest box. They alight on the sheds and watch as I leave the food before flying in and heading straight over to the beehives where their hungry brood are. They fly so close that I throw the food onto the shed and wait for a dull thud that tells me they have taken food, however this week I threw the food as an owl flew in nearly hitting it with its tea! Our carefully choreographed routine has since continued each evening since so I think they have forgiven me. 

Our second pair have given me more to worry about. Here we have another exceptional female. Our first female from our original pair joined us in 2012. The female from pair two was a youngster last year but she has made her presence felt across the farm. She has been feisty and quite dominant, flying in first for food and showing well both by day and by night. Because of her darker colouring, she has been easy to pick out among the other owls. I last saw her mid August when she flew back to the farm from a hunting foray. Since then she seems to have vanished. My first concern was for her young family and I watched the nest box from a distance to see the male taking food in. Night after night I saw just the three adults and although I watched and waited she never showed. 

The obvious answer is that she has died. She was brave and young, hunting far and wide. She could have been hit by a car, taken in pesticide, become trapped somewhere, the possibilities are many, yet while there is no body I will continue to wait for her. Female Barn Owls usually moult whilst sitting on eggs and ours usually moult while sitting on second broods. Perhaps with broods happening so early she is noticeably absent because she is moulting now instead but I think I am clutching at straws with this theory. Each night as I walk down I scour the skies for her but to no avail.

In her absence I watch her brood, checking that they are still being fed and listening to them hissing as I approach. My best vantage point is from behind the grain store a good way back from the dutch barn. From here I can see when the male bird approaches and can hear them excitedly greeting him. It is on the 25th August that I realise that the owlets are almost ready to fledge. As I watch from the shed, I see an owl looking round the side of the nest box.It is trying to make out what or who I am and is bobbing its head from side to side to try to focus upon me. This is classic owlet posturing but being out on the front porch means it must be six or seven weeks old. Once it tires of watching me it proceeds to stretch its beautiful, fully formed wings out and begins wing flapping, strengthening its wing muscles and practising ready to fly. 

It is nearly a week later on the 31st August that I realise this brood have indeed fledged. Although a couple wait on the nest box front I watch two others fly a little way and land in the field. This is typical owlet behaviour and I hold my breath until I see them return to the straw and crash land close to the nest box. This is a full two months earlier than our owlets usually fledge from second broods and part of their success is down to the bravery and confidence of their mother. As I think of her and her determination, I suddenly have a thought. What if she has disappeared because she is actually sitting on eggs? She left her first brood of owlets remarkably early and the dates on this brood tell me she disappeared when they were within two weeks of fledging. She was confident of a food source for them and we have plenty of nest boxes for her to use. If this is case it will be a first for us to have three broods from one pair in a year. I can only watch, wait and see.

And then there were four.

 The kestrels are my little bit of midsummer magic. They usually fledge just after the barn owls and this year was no exception, especially considering the owls were so early. Just as with the owls, I learn to tell the signs of their imminent fledging as year upon year I watch them on a daily basis.

Daddy kestrel is always pleased to see me. In poor weather he will wait outside my house and fly down with me, evidently delighted to see me, or most likely the chicks that I have for him. He has also learned to fly at night and is often the first one to fly in when I feed the owls. As his hungry family grow, he becomes even braver and flies within touching distance. At this point I begin to watch the nest box a little more closely to try and work out how many young he has reared. Using my binoculars I see four, perhaps five little grey heads bobbing about in the open box but it is tricky to count them as they are particularly guarded. I know when they are ready to fledge however, because daddy kestrel suddenly goes quiet. He knows his best defence for his vulnerable family is to stay out of the way.

Every year our kestrels fledge but initially some of them are unable to fly. I am unsure whether they fall from the box, despite it being designed especially for kestrels or whether they get over enthusiastic when the older siblings fly and just leave regardless. I always have an anxious few days with young kestrels perched all over the farm yard that run or gallop about, hiding up at night to stay safe and that find their wings only when I have been driven to distraction. This was especially true five years ago when the owls wanted their nest box back and ousted the kestrels too soon which prompted me to buy their current box. It also happened two years ago when I fed a youngster for a good week by the shed. It was lovely to hear it chittering as I walked down and to see it begging for food and I am pleased to say it fledged successfully.

This year, however, I am afraid to say we had a casualty. The kestrels left the nest box as per usual and hopped around the yard. unfortunately one chose to sit on a trailer that the farmers were moving. They realised something was moving and stopped but the poor bird had fallen between some bags and injured its leg. It got itself into the straw and I watched from a distance. It seemed to be in good spirits and was darting about as they usually do. There was no way to catch it as it had found a straw bolthole which I felt assured would keep it safe at night. I knew I could feed it and as it was managing quite well on its leg I chose to feed it on the floor as I usually do and hope for the best.

Sadly it didn't make it. After a couple of night the chick I left for it was not taken and on further investigation I found the poor birds remains in the field. I suspect a fox had found itself an easy meal.Its always sad to lose a fledgling like this but they are so vulnerable at this stage and this one particularly so. I suppose the injury made it especially susceptible and I worried that I should have tried harder to intervene. I used my previous experience to make my decision and in this case it wasn't good enough.

I watched the other fledglings closely. Had we got five that were now sadly only four or had four turned into three? Initially they were very quiet and I wondered if  the family casualty had made them wary. Dad would fly in for food and they would sit in the straw unusually subdued but it didn't last long. Before the week was out they were chittering excitedly on my approach and circling me closely. They still hadn't sussed out that they could help themselves to food so when dad flew to the platform they mobbed him tirelessly, squabbling with each other when one managed to wrench a chick from dad's talons. Dad meanwhile remained patient with them, flying in numerous times only to have the food taken from him. He also remained vigilant against danger and I watched in awe as he took on a red kite that ventured too close to the farm.

It was as they grew braver that I was able to say for certain how many of the youngsters remained. The females plumage was closer in pattern to the juvenile birds so it was initially hard to work out whether I was watching four young kestrels or whether one of them was their mother but as time progressed and I watched them harangue the male bird it became quite clear that we did indeed have four surviving young kestrels. I don't think they have been as brave as previous years. The hay was cut as they found their independence and so perhaps this meant finding their own food became easier. 

I have however loved looking out for them on my evening walk with Max. I am used to their perches and pick them out across the farm waiting in the ash tree or balancing in the highest point of the horse chestnut. Last night as I gardened at dusk I saw two together flying back to the farm against a pink, cirrus patterned sky. As I watched them soar, I felt proud to be a small part of their success so far. 

Magical.

 The Barn Owl's fledging has been memorable and magical this year. It is my thirteenth  summer of watching the owls that I have helped to feed take those first, tentative fights from their nest boxes yet it never ceases to amaze me. Every year follows similar patterns yet every year I see something new. I don't think I'll ever tire of watching these beauties.

I first realised the owlets from east nest box were ready to fly when I saw those familiar white droppings all on the grass under the nest box. This tells me that the youngsters are venturing from the nest box itself and sitting on the porch. Often at nightfall and even in the mornings I could hear them scuttling about and was surprised to see a fully developed wing on one of them as it bustled back into the nest box. The other clue that fledging is imminent is when the parents go quiet. I suppose they don't want to draw any attention to the nest site itself at such a precarious time but by now, I read this as a sign to watch ever more closely.

What surprised me this year was the date at which they fledged. The first owlet could be seen out on the roof struts close to the box on the 25th May. According to the Barn Owl Trust, it takes 32 days for the egg to hatch and 63 days before the owlet is fully feathered, 95 days in total which means this pair laid their first egg on the 18th February. This is a good two weeks earlier than usual and undoubtedly down to the warm spring. This darker female was also very keen for food and seemed a confident mother, the sort who might take a chance and throw caution to the wind and her keenness seemed to have paid off.

By the 30th of May, one of the owlets had made it over to the straw stack in the field and I watched entranced as it sat blinking and bobbing at the strange new world around it. Within a few days I saw all three owlets , now fully feathered and flying short distances around the straw stack. I'll not forget creeping down with my camera only to realise they were all three staring indignantly at me from the straw and I had to crawl away in the most undignified manner in order not to disturb them. I then found that I didn't need to walk down to the farm as I could watch them leave the nest box and stretch their wings before flying round the dutch barn from my utility window, Its taken a long time to wash the dog and cat dishes over the past month as I stop and stare at the Barn Owl antics.

I have watched them since, both morning and evening as they grow in confidence and glide about the farm yard. Two girls and a boy, they still perch together for comfort and enjoy sitting under the foliage of the bordering trees. At feeding time they fly around me unsure whether to screech and send me off or hiss for food. I am a confusion of contradictions for them but a welcome sight nonetheless. As for the parents, well the dark female has totally disappeared, leaving her growing youngsters to feed for themselves, and a male is hunting every evening close to the beehive box.I suspect she is already sitting on a second brood. If ever there was a year where our owls produced three broods in a year this year has to be the one.

Meanwhile the pair in the combine shed have stuck far more rigidly to the usual plan. They were still taking food in to their youngsters during early June and as no one goes in there, this brood fledged at the usual time in total privacy. All I do is offer my phone camera up to the hole in the door and record what I can see. It showed me three owlets with a parent bird keeping a close watch upon them. One evening last week I stood beside the shed and heard a scuffling. A young owl was finding its way out to the back doors of the shed to begin its hunt. We were no more than a couple of metres apart when our eyes met through the wooden slats as it prepared to fly. This was my closest encounter with this brood. By mid June these owlets joined the east nest box youngsters and the sky was alive with owls at feeding time. It really is a tremendous sight to watch as the owls fill the darkening expanse as they circle and weave. 

As I walk  tonight, avoiding the grass field now to give them space, I see the Little Owl giving me a hard stare as he wills me along, I notice three, possibly four young Kestrels, whose fledging is a whole blog of its own, and I watch owls flying across the willowing grasses, honing their hunting skills and growing in both strength and confidence. It is beyond satisfying to know I have played my part in their success so far and I know how lucky I have been to have had that opportunity.

Abundance

 May is my very favourite month. Everything seems to be in bloom and wherever you look there is an abundance of greenery and life. The air is thick with pollen, and insects send a haze up over the grass field that seems to grow taller by the day . My owls are also showing me there is an abundance too. They have been hunting well both morning and evening and as I watch I see they are successful reasonably quickly. I suspect it is a good vole year and when this happens broods of owls are also large.

I am always mindful of disturbance. Barn Owls are a Schedule 1 bird which means it is illegal to disturb their nest site. It would be ludicrous of me to stop feeding and they are used to me walking the fields each morning and evening but I make sure that I do nothing more. Its awfully tempting to walk down, sit in the grass and watch them hunting to and fro but even though they know me, I know this is distracting them from the important job of providing for their young. Instead I take my camera on my usual walk but always continue on my way and leave them in peace.

Feeding time however, is breathtaking. Owls circle against the sunset or perch on the sheds waiting. The Kestrel flies in first and more recently a Little Owl waits on the corner of the dutch barn for his share. As I throw the food onto the roof I hear a dull thud as owls snatch the food away just above my head. 

Having lost adults in the past with tragic results though, I do like to check in on the owls from time to time. On two evenings this week I fed as usual and then watched from the farm gate to see that both pairs were present and also to see how many chicks they take in to the hungry broods. I watch the shed pair on the first evening where the owls dart through above the door gap.The female is bravest and flies straight over to the food upon the roof before hurrying back inside with it. I suspect she is our original female by the way she moves, by her confidence and by her mannerisms. I watched her twelve springs ago appearing from this very shed and I like to think I recognise her but there is something that has worried me which I will come to later. The male is far more tentative but between them they take seven chicks into the nest box before helping themselves to food which they take into the straw to eat.

The following evening I stood in a similar place and watched the box on the dutch barn. This is where the much darker female has her brood and despite it being her first year with us she is always first  to circle round me and always straight in for food. She will chase off any intruders and even assert herself with the other three adults who sit placidly together waiting. She's smart too. One morning when I walked Max she was out hunting. When I reached  the bottom of the grass field I watched her fly in and check out the feeding platform. She had realised it was me and despite it not being feeding time had made sure she wasn't missing out. At feeding time I watched her too flew from the shed roof over to her nest box but then she dropped down time and time again to take the food from the platform directly below her. I had to focus really hard but picked out two separate birds flying in with food and watched six chicks in total taken into the hungry brood. 

I am satisfied that all is well but am puzzled over the origin of the new female who seems so very different from the others. I am also concerned who she has replaced. I re read blogs and look through last year's photos. Last Autumn we had an especially dark female fledge from east nest box. Looking at photos this could well be the female that has made up one of our adult pairs this year. Now, although I never captured any adults last year, I thought that it was our second pair who had used this box last summer. If it was, and something happened to the female, surely the male wouldn't take one of his own young as his new mate? Unless both adults from the second pair perished over winter and a brand new pair have joined us which I think with the extra feeding is highly unlikely. 

                                                             Same bird as above?

Another possibility that I don't want to acknowledge is that we have actually lost our old female who would be thirteen this year and this youngster has paired up with her mate whom I refer to as our original pair.  I am holding out hope that the ringed female that I watched hunting late last week is actually her but unless we find her dead somewhere and identify her by the ring, or we recapture the female from the shed to confirm otherwise I really can't say for sure. As you can imagine I am watching them avidly.

Nest sites and owl fights.

 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.

Gone

 I am currently walking down to an empty farmyard, whistling into the huge Fenland skies and returning without as much as a screech, a hiss or a curved winged fly past. My owls have gone. This is exactly as it should be but it takes a little getting used to when I have become familiar with seeing seven, eight or more owls flying in as I arrive after dark. It is actually a welcome occurrence as it means that the females are at their chosen nest sites and most likely already sitting on eggs. This is my twelfth spring of watching the owls and just as I listen to the Robin's duet as they call from tree to tree, or watch the Mallards exploring the ditches for the best nest site, so I have come to take comfort in this seasonal pattern too.

At the start of March the owls were still keen, indeed the females were exceptionally brave as they began to build up their breeding weight. Our eldest female would sit on the shed apex and peer down at me, or fly over for food so low and so slow that I could almost have reached out and touched her. She always took the food away from me and I knew this was a ruse. However familiar the owls may seem, they know to steer clear of the nest site until I have left. There were also two youngsters who always arrived together and flew in for food in a hasty and haphazard way. Twice I watched them gatecrash the party and saw one fly into the open sheds that border the farm driveway to eat  its food. These youngsters had obviously been ousted from the farm but were opportunistically still flying in once the adults had taken their share. More than once I heard territorial screeching and there were feathers around the straw stack, a sure sign of a scuffle.

By the middle of the month all was quiet with the Barn Owls although the Kestrels still show well. One morning last week, Daddy Kestrel was waiting for me outside my house and flew alongside me for his breakfast. I watch out for his mate disappearing when I know, she too, will be nesting but she is still flying. Meanwhile, the Little Owls have become far more noticeable.I barely see them in the winter months but once spring arrives these dapper little birds make their presence felt. I hear them first, a range of vocalisations as they reestablish their territories and chide the Barn Owls when they come too close. As the evening become lighter I see them too. One evening, before dusk this week  I saw them silhouetted in the bare branches, and one teatime a single bird sat motionless on the roof strut. I love their furious stares and their scolding voices, they are a welcome addition to my spring sightings.

I've walked down each evening under calm conditions, bright moonlight, raging wind and torrential rain recently and each time no one greets me, but tonight a single owl flew across the moonlight. I waited in the shadow of the barley store where I could see two of our four owl boxes.I had barely positioned myself when the owl reappeared and flew directly over me before it turned neatly and disappeared into the shed. I left immediately despite hoping to see more activity. I couldn't risk being seen and disturbing this pair. With my new found secret I hurried home smiling.

Mystery.

 It finally feels as if the worst of the winter is over. The sun is gaining strength as the days lengthen and the birds are beginning to sing. There's a nostalgia to these early awakenings. Even when we hadn't acknowledged that they were missing, their return is so very welcome. On the river, our swans send their final cygnet on its way as they begin their courtship and look forward to a new family very soon, and so it is with the owls.

This winter the rain has been incessant. Figures from the North Level drainage board show that in our region we've had the wettest winter since 1832 when recorded rainfall was 393 mm. This year from October to February they recorded 462 mm. This is terrible news for Barn Owls who rely on dry weather to hunt. The constant flooding also means that they main prey, field voles, will be impacted. I suspect that this is why the adults tolerated the autumn youngsters well into February when they would normally send them away from the farm in soon after Christmas. I did my best to support them by putting out plenty of food and hoping that this would lessen any rivalry but I knew that the evenings of listening to them hissing at me from the straw were coming to an end.

It was during this transition from the shelter of the farm that we seemed to have lost another of the youngsters. I saw a buff coloured, shape high up in the straw stack in the field. Looking through my binoculars I felt almost certain it was the lifeless body of a barn owl, face down with its wings spread out. The body was too high for me to retrieve and all I could do was guess what might have happened to it. Predation by a fox was obviously discounted due to where the body lay. Starvation was also unlikely as an owl that had grown weak would hide away rather than sit out in the open. Although our farm itself is safe from poison, I couldn't rule out the fact that an opportunistic youngster could have picked up a poisoned mouse elsewhere which might have explained it being out in the open. Similarly had it been injured, perhaps in a traffic collision it may have returned to the farm before sadly perishing. As I walked Max and pondered its fate, I saw the buzzards growing ever more territorial as they too, thought of nesting in the near future. They stood tall and proud on the straw stack, surveying the area and I recognised the risk they can pose. I also watched the crows tumbling upwards and spiraling round the straw stack. We've lost a young owl to a mob of crows many moons back so I know that either of these species could mean trouble for a weak, injured or vulnerable young owl.

Then a thought occurred to me. What if the owl that had perished was our adult female? She is in her thirteenth year here and surely cannot last forever. That same evening I took my camera down and snapped shots of the owls as they flew in. I recognised her immediately; distinguished by the way she sat patiently and waited for me and this was confirmed by the ring on her right leg. I really shouldn't have favourites, but I was so relieved to see her. 

I now see four, five sometimes six owls at feeding time and feel certain that any remaining youngsters are no longer roosting here. One morning an owl dropped out of the holly tree along the farm drive as I returned to our house. It flew towards the beehives and I watched in astonishment. That same evening I waited after feeding time to see an owl harried away by another. They circled and turned just above my head like two ice skaters in a starlit duet and although there was no screeching I sensed the hostility between them. I hope if they are desperate they can snatch some food at an inopportune moment but more than that, I hope the weather settles to allow them their independence.

I watch the remaining owls avidly. The females are still showing but ours lay eggs in early March and I know that any day now they will disappear. I search for clues as to their chosen nest sites. Last year they chose the boxes on the dutch barn yet this year two regularly leave the combine shed and others fly across to the beehive box.  I will enjoy the little guessing game that awaits me in the next few weeks.

As for the sad demise of the straw stack owl? I walk down with my camera a week or more after first seeing the body and snap a photo. Looking at the photo I cannot be certain that it even is an owl after all.