Lucky owlets

 Its now a month or more since our Autumn owlets fledged. I can't say how many there were in both nest boxes or whether any died during those first vulnerable few days when their naivety made them an easy target for foxes, buzzards and crows, but I know that we still have a yard full of Barn Owls. Because I feed them, the parents tolerate the youngsters presence for far longer than is usual. Our second broods tend to stay on site until January, sometimes February when the adult birds begin to reestablish their bonds and send them away. 

I can tell when I am looking at one of the youngsters across the dank November fields. They sit staring back at me, unsure quite what to do. They know my voice and recognise my whistling  call as I wander down each night, so they think I must be safe, yet their instinct is to fly. I do my best not to disturb them too far from their roosts especially during their very first forays from the nest box. More often they continue to wait in the nest box knowing the parents will bring food. I listen to their urgent hissing and try to work out how many are calling but it is impossible.

I am sometimes fortunate to also see the youngsters during daylight hours. One drizzly morning when I walked Max, three were out of the nest boxes sitting dotted about under the dutch barn on machinery staring gloomily out at the rain. I noted that there were two males and one female. On another occasion I see two females so there are at least four youngsters. Despite seeing them peer out of west nest box at me before they fledged, they are now all in east nest box. I am guessing that as this is nearest to the food that I leave, the youngsters have vied for the closest space available. Barn Owls can't count so the adults will happily continue to ferry food up until the youngsters are satisfied whether those owlets are their own or not. They remind me a little of cuckoos as I stand and listen. I imagine them sitting lazily and loudly demanding more and more food despite their ability to fly out for it themselves.

As the youngsters grow in confidence and ability the farm yard proves itself to be the most perfect place for a young Barn Owl to live. There are open sheds close to the house that once housed small tractors and machinery. The wooden partitions make for a handy perch and by daylight I can clearly see where the owls have sat and hunted by the sloppy white droppings that cover the floor below. By the farm gate is an old fashioned crew yard where livestock once lived. I often see owls take the food and sit under the tiled roof struts to eat. During the recent storms the owls clearly took advantage of both these covered areas. We also have five nest boxes across the yard that provide safe, dry roosts as well as nesting sites.

Perhaps most importantly there is also the hay barn or combine shed as I call it. It has two entrances where the doors have dropped and a nest box to hide in should anyone go into the shed itself. It is also the closest building to the dutch barn where the owlets were reared and I anticipated that this would be where they moved to when east nest box got too crowded. Sure enough, this week, when I offered my phone camera up to the door gap I saw two young owls on the roof struts staring indignantly in my direction before scooting off into the nest box without delay. 

I know they are independent now and so do the adult birds. Although the females wait expectantly for me in the farm entrance each night they are not taking food to the youngsters  so readily. I watch one of these females sit on the shed roof and wait, ignoring the hissing that grows louder and louder as they sense her presence and call for supper. It is deliberate on her part and I think she is tempting them out to take food for themselves. 

There's a real satisfaction for me in anticipating their movements and watching familiar patterns unfold but I never take things for granted. Having done this for as long as I have I know only two well how fortunes can change in a heartbeat. Its thrilling and exciting to think about what the next few weeks may hold for these owls.

Autumn babies

 Summer 2026 was a disappointing summer for our owls. We had two broods but lost both youngsters and one of our adult females. Without having them ringed, we had no idea how many fledged successfully and those who did quickly dispersed leaving the yard as quiet as it had been in the spring. 

                                                             Tonight's owlet

I continued to feed. There are owls roosting across the farm and visiting owls who rely on my offerings in lean times. The weather was calm and as the crops were harvested, voles and mice became easy pickings for these resilient predators. Nonetheless each morning the food I had left was gone and I continued to leave out a small amount to supplement the hunt.

As August continued I noticed a single male waiting for me. Sometimes he would perch on the chimney of the house whilst other times he waited in the trees. I suspected he was feeding a female sitting on eggs or possibly brooding young owlets and I stood in the shadows of the grain store to watch him. Sure enough he flew with the food to west nest box under the dutch barn eaves and I was delighted to see, that despite losing a female, we still had at least one breeding pair.

A week or so elapsed and I waited again, to check all was well and to look for his mate. This time the male flew to west nest box and then flew with food to east nest box too. As I write this, I doubt what I actually saw in the inky dusk light but at the time I was absolutely positive that it was the same owl flying to feed owlets in both boxes. Male Barn Owls have been known to take two mates and the idea that this bird was polyamorous seemed to fit with what I had witnessed.

                                                      My beautiful old female

The summer continued, warm, fine and settled and I continued to watch the boxes to ensure all was well. As time moved along, I began to see more owls, usually three but sometimes more. Two or three owls waited for me on the bridge or on the sheds by the gate where I have recently started to feed. One was most probably a youngster from the summer broods, not brave enough to enter the farm itself but keen enough to sit rather gawkily on the shed and fly away to the north as soon as I deposited food onto the roof. I was also over the moon to see my very old, resident female who sat close by in her usual pose, confident with me and looking remarkably well. I watched her and she seemed to take the food around the periphery of the farm, probably to west nest box. Despite her grand old age it seemed she had successfully reared owlets.

I have enjoyed some remarkably close encounters, including watching the male take food from a small shed directly in front of me. He couldn't see me in the shadows but he must have heard the thumping of my heart as I stood stock still, barely daring to move and he glared all around trying to work out where I was. Another night an owl flew low over my head as I waited in the farm gateway and landed in the tree directly above me and last night an owl flew into the combine shed roof as I stood throwing food up for them. Its beautiful ghost like form was within reach of me. No matter how many years I continue with this, I'll never tire of these heart stopping moments.

After a few delicious weeks of gentle hissing and scuttling after dark, the owlets began to show. West nest box is the easiest to catch a glimpse of them from due to the angle of the entrance. They peered rather gormlessly at me as I passed on my morning walk before hurrying to hide away which told me that they were getting close to fledging.

Tonight I had an unexpected and unsettling encounter. As I walked into the farm with Max soon after tea, an owl flew from east nest box. It flew strongly and I assumed it was an adult but when it landed in the field and peered back across at me I knew it was an owlet. Thankfully Max chose not to investigate, the lure of rabbit droppings was far more alluring and the owl took another glance at me and flew strongly up onto the grain store roof. This was encouraging. If it could fly this high it could get back to the nest box yet my photos showed an owlet with plenty of fluff still left to develop into adult feathers. I ran away from the yard calling Max as I went, and left it to find its way back. I was dismayed to see a buzzard close by but this flew away to the east and as dusk fell I knew the youngster had a good chance of returning to the natal nest site. I hope I am not greeted with a sad little pile of feathers in the morning but when the owlets are this mobile it is fair impossible to intervene. 

Good luck little one. I hope you continue to thrive and give me lots of pleasure with your antics as autumn turns to winter across our little fenland farm.

Famine

 As I write this blog, we are struggling with our fifth heatwave of the summer where temperatures have been in the thirties for a good few days each time As for rainfall, we haven't had any measurable rainfall since the 23rd of June when we had all of 1 mm.  It is now mid August. 

Even the most sceptical among us are now beginning to acknowledge that we are seeing climate change unfolding before our eyes. To watch the footage of Dunwich Heath burning and to see the nightjars flying out of the flames was heart rending, and more recently, Holme Fen is now into its fifth day burning. I am enraged to read an article blaming rewilding for the spread of wildfires which is missing the point entirely. It is humankind that has polluted and plundered the natural world.

Surprisingly it seems to have been a good season for Barn Owls. Moor Farm ringed six healthy owlets in one brood and I continue to see owls hunting across the Fens close to us. There is obviously a glut of mice and voles for now, and the settled weather has made for easy hunting. I would anticipate that second broods will be numerous as the adults feel confident about the food source. I think what will be challenging is the inevitable deluge of wet weather that we surely have coming. Many young and inexperienced owls will find hunting difficult. Barn Owls are one of the species that find extreme weather tricky.

For our owls on the farm it has been a terrible year. As soon as our first brood fledged, I sadly found our adult female dead in an open barn close to the house. It would seem she had taken on poison  as she had simply fallen from her roost. Soon after this, I walked down one morning to find owl feathers close to the nest box. There was no body but I felt sure that one of the youngsters had been predated, but I was reassured to see three other youngsters branching out from the nest box. One was dark like the female we had lost and two others perched close together on the roof struts. Sadly my delight was short lived. Following another spell of hot weather with temperatures well into the thirties, yet another owlet was found dead close to the nest box. As this one hadn't any obvious injuries and was well fed, I wonder if it succumbed to the intense heat. It was a terrible few days.

As usual with the summer broods the owlets quickly dispersed from the farm and the only sign that there were owls close was the territorial screeching as midsummer passed. Since June I have rarely seen an owl but I continued to leave food, on the shed roof where I knew the owls would find it should they need it. For the whole of July I never saw an owl but our adult male left me his moult feathers strewn across the yard each morning. Beautiful as they were, this made me sad as it meant that rearing owlets was complete for this year as male birds only moult when they have finished nesting. 

Without any sightings. it was impossible to know what was going on with the owls. I was unsure whether we began the year with two pairs as usual or whether the male had taken on the feisty female who raised her young in east nest box and then sadly died, alongside our very old female. The last time I had seen her was in June when she would take food across to the beehive box. No sign of her since then could mean that she too has perished in what has already been an unfortunate year for our owls. She is a very special old lady, one I can recognise among all the others and one who I will be looking out for as summer continues.

As August arrived and I still didn't see any owls I began to fear the worst. I even wondered if any were flying in during the night or whether the crows were having a hearty breakfast of day old chicks at dawn. I hunted out my trail camera and positioned it facing the shed. Reassuringly the owls were not flying in until well after dark but there were plenty of them. One photo showed two owls together which was lovely to see.

Then something remarkable happened. For the past four evenings an owl has waited patiently in the dutch barn eaves at feeding time. Each evening it flies across the farm yard to wait for me to leave before flying up to west nest box with food. Is this our old female or possibly her mate taking supplies up to the box whilst she broods young owlets? The going backwards and forwards suggests this owl is feeding a family. I keep a sensible distance, watching in delight as the owl flies back and forth against the harvested fields. Perhaps our luck has turned at last.

Abundance

 I think May has to be my favourite month. Everything is so lush and abundant. Here in the Fens we've had a ridiculously dry spring with only about   five mm of rain in April and little more in May. The ground is parched and cracked yet somehow the crops, the field edges and hedgerows are teeming with life. I've enjoyed watching the mining bees by the paddock that seem to grow in numbers each year and welcomed the yellow wagtails who always arrive in late spring to nest at the end of the grass field but, of course, I am watching intently for barn owl activity.

                                                   Male owl from east nest box.

I have been very apprehensive. Last year, according to the Barn Owl Trust who collate findings, was the worst year for barn owls in a decade and one of the reasons cited was the dry weather. It impacted vole numbers which in turn impacted the owl's confidence to lay. This fact, coupled with the extremely quiet winter I experienced meant I was worried about the upcoming nesting season. 

                                                       Preparing the owl boxes.

It soon became apparent that the very keen dark female and her mate have taken east nest box. I watched the male feeding his mate whilst she sat on eggs and have been blessed to see them flying in for food with more and more urgency as their family grow. I still throw chicks up onto the combine shed and this pair readily fly in with me super close before circling the dutch barn as I leave. I can then watch them from the gate as they tag team the food flying in relay up and into the box. It won't be long before I have a little glimpse of the youngsters as they venture onto the porch of the nest box and I play guessing games as to how many have been reared.

                                                                     Last year's fledglings

These fabulous sightings also remind me that our very old female who will be sixteen this season, is not as evident as other years. I feel sure that this confident pair have pushed her out and in her declining years she will be unable to defend her territory as she may once have been able to. It makes me sad to think of her taking second place when she was always so accommodating of other owls on the farm, but nature is harsh and not always fair. I often see three owls flying in for food and wonder if this year she hasn't been able to secure herself a mate but is still in the periphery of the territory. There is an owl that looks for me from the house roof and I am sure it is her and one night when I walked back through the yard to the house an owl flew with food from the open barns across to the beehive box and didn't return. I do need to take my camera down and try for a photo which will confirm my suspicions but for now I just hope she is safe and well.

Meanwhile the kestrels are doing well. They wait, just as daddy kestrel used to, on the telegraph pole by the farm gate and fly through to the dutch barn for the food that I leave each morning. The male takes his away but the female eats greedily on the platform eyeing me suspiciously as she tears into the food. If I stand behind the combine I can just see into the nest box and I counted at least three little grey bundles in there this week. They normally fledge mid to late June and I am looking forward to their raucous antics.

                                                          Three grey bundles

One mystery has recently been solved for me. I leave some food on the shed in the farm gateway and each evening without fail, at least one chick has been taken as I leave the farm. Initially I thought I had counted wrong but I realised that I couldn't be wrong every evening. As the nights became lighter and I watched more closely I noticed that as soon as my back was turned the little owls were flying in and taking the chicks from this roof before flying round by the trees back to their nest box on the dutch barn. I've since watched as they polish off the offerings from this area whilst the barn owls ferry food away in the opposite direction. I've no idea how many owlets these endearing little characters have but they are very evident both day and night and causing mayhem among the smaller birds who are none too happy to see them perched in the trees and barns so close to their nests. I will know when these youngsters fledge, as the little owls berate anyone who goes too close to their fledglings that you can play a game of hot or cold to pinpoint their whereabouts.

                                                       I love their expressions

So May has gifted me some wonderful views of the owls and kestrels on the farm and I am looking forward to seeing what June brings as the youngsters join the mayhem on these long, sunny evenings.

Happy Days.

 My winter this year was remarkably quiet. I think that the mild weather played a part but we also have some feisty owls on site who may have intimidated some of the visiting owls. I watched a video recently from the previous winter and counted the usual seven or eight flying in together and felt disappointed to think I had not had such an opportunity recently. 

                                                              (previous year)

 During late winter, we saw owls flying in the vicinity of the farm and heading away past my house. The territorial screeching was constant from our resident owls who were pairing up ready for the forthcoming season. I suspect the flurry of activity was from youngsters still chancing their luck for a free lunch. We also have owls at a bungalow close by who were probably last year's youngsters but who were being told in no uncertain terms that the farm was out of bounds.

At the end of February, Rob took down both east and west nest box and repaired them. There were owls roosting in both boxes and I was anxious to get them both back up as quickly as possible. He did a great job and we positioned them further back into the dutch barn to protect them from the weather and so make them last longer. I needn't have worried about the owls moving elsewhere, on the very first night it was back up, an owl was waiting for me on the top of east nest box.

Our owls lay their eggs at the beginning of March and true to form, everything went quiet as the month began. I have rarely seen an owl since then with the females busily brooding their eggs and the males carefully keeping well out of my way so as not to give away the nest site but there are clues. I notice droppings in the farm gateway, under the roof struts nearest nest box and all over the combine!! This tells me where owls are waiting or hunting. I also scour the ground for pellets and notice that there are regularly found near the farm chimney. It makes me wonder if this will, once again, be a nest site for these opportunistic birds.

I do occasionally see an owl. One regularly waits on the house aerial while another flies in to the shed roof by the gate whilst I am in the yard itself but the views are fleeting. When the pink moon that heralded a new month was illuminating the yard, I decided to wait by the shed and see who flew where. Immediately an owl took a chick up to east nest box. I could hear it clattering around inside as it left the food for its mate while I sat perfectly still barely daring to breathe. From the corner of my eye I saw another taking food into the combine shed while a third flew to the shed roof and then flew back across the yard. I wonder if we actually now have three pairs of owls with the oldest female pushed out to the periphery of the farm and two younger pairs taking east nest box and the shed but only time will tell. While I am pondering this thought, the owl leaves east nest box, pauses, and lets out an almighty shriek. I have been rumbled. I switch on the torch and make sure the owls know I have left the yard so they can continue to feed in peace. 

Meanwhile, the Little Owls are becoming more visible, and wait for me each morning on the front of their designated nest box. Their indignant frowns always make me smile and I look forward to seeing more of them as they too, rear their families.

As for the kestrels? Well since the afternoon when they were circling with a third bird , things seem to have settled down. I suspect it was a rival male competing for our female and for all I know, he may have ousted the bird she has been canoodling with since Christmas but I do hope not. I watched the pair mating in the tree at the start of the week and now they have disappeared entirely. I am not concerned. I assume she has taken to their favoured nest site and he is loyally keeping out of sight too.

What with at least two broods of Barn Owls hatching any time and both Kestrels and Little Owls rearing young too I am looking forward to new life on the farm as the days lengthen and the warmer weather returns. Happy days.

Endings...and new beginnings

 For us, January and February are winter; dreary, dark and this year in particular, cold and wet.Yet for the owls, their thoughts are already turning to spring. Soon after Christmas the owls can be found at the nest sites, reestablishing their bonds and thinking about the season ahead of them. We begin to see more activity and there is definitely more territorial screeching going on as the owls on site lay claim to the yard and make sure any youngsters or visiting owls know exactly who the farm belongs to.

We are also looking ahead. At some point the farm will be sold and whilst it is highly likely that I will still be able to feed the owls each night, I want to have options for feeding. For this reason, since Christmas, I have been putting chicks on the shed rood close to the gate. Initially I just left two but once these were discovered and taken I increased the volume here and decreased food on the shed in the farm itself. I did this very gradually so no owls went hungry but so that I can feed here and minimise disturbance to the new owners. I was so excited recently to be greeted one evening by two owls waiting on this very shed and even more delighted when I realised that one was our oldest female. Since then I have noticed that whilst I am in the farm putting food on the other feeding stations that some of the owls are flying in and taking food from the shed by the gate before I've exited the yard. I'm keen to see how this all works out.

Our other task was to clean the nest boxes out, mend and reposition them slightly. The owls make this especially tricky for us. They lay their first egg in early March and once spring broods fledge in May they then go on to produce second broods which don't fledge until October. These young owls often stay and roost in the boxes throughout the winter so our window for cleaning boxes is very limited.With the farm leaving our hands sooner rather than later we needed to leave the boxes in the best state possible. This meant cleaning them out and mending both east nest box and west nest box. These are the most popular nest sites and both being exposed to the elements, we decided once they were mended they needed securing further back into the dutch barn so they took less weathering and would last much longer.

I saw the manitou out in the yard in mid February and realised they were taking the boxes down. As I watched I saw an owl leave the box and fly panicked across the yard. Later I found out that both these boxes had two owls in them. Whether they were youngsters roosting or whether they were our established pairs I couldn't say but despite there being plenty of other roost sites I was keen for the boxes to go back up as soon as possible.

What we found in the boxes was surprising. Both boxes were brimming with pellet debris but east nest box also had a fair quantity of sticks. I'd guess that the jackdaws had begun to build in this one and was most probably the reason that the barn owls never used it last summer. What was also surprising was the pellets themselves. I feed between fifteen and twenty day old chicks a night, up to one hundred and forty a week. Pellets that the owls regurgitate after eating chicks are a light brown and chalky in composition. Looking at the pellet debris I would say that only about twenty per cent were from day old chicks. Its reassuring to see that our owls continue to hunt for themselves but it also told me that in this case, there are more owls flying in and taking the day old chicks if the owls on site are catching this quantity of voles. 

It took six nerve wracking days for the boxes to go back up. I asked every morning if today was the day when the owls would get these favoured boxes back and eventually they went back up. Two very sturdy boxes were positioned out of the weather yet still close enough to the original site for the owls to find them easily. Sure enough, that very evening an owl left the platform of east nest box as I walked down with food. I do hope they are happy with their refurbished homes. Perhaps now they have such super homes they will vacate the combine!!

Meanwhile the kestrels have also been thinking of spring. Before I had even got over the sad loss of Daddy Kestrel, the new male was on site and flying alongside our original female. I even wonder if his arrival had something to do with the attack on Daddy Kestrel. Before we lost him we had a kestrel roosting on our aerial. There were droppings and pellets all over the path. Once we lost him, these pellets disappeared. Could it be possible that this younger bird saw the chance to take over a desirable territory and fought for it? It would have been a fight that Daddy Kestrel with his advanced years would have been bound to lose. We'll never know exactly what happened but I am very happy to have a kestrel pair continuing at the farm. The female is now the bravest and waits for me each morning. Her new mate is often with her and flies alongside her. I have also witnessed brief mating which I suppose is part of them establishing their bond. Today they sat together in the ash tree watching me as I walked closely past. I am extremely proud to have had Daddy Kestrel with us for sixteen and a half years but am also excited for this next chapter in the kestrel's story.

So endings and new beginnings and the circle of life continues. Whether we want things to stay as they are or whether we are keen for change, life goes on relentlessly and all we can do is look forward and enjoy the journey. Here's to the upcoming spring and the surprises my avian friends have for me.

Barn Owls 2025

 I've waited before sharing a review of 2025 anticipating a summary of the year across the UK and the successes and disappointments in different regions. It gives me a comparison from which I can gauge our results and, of course, I am always keen to see how the beautiful Barn Owl is faring.

It appears that the results are mixed. Some areas, such as East Yorkshire, reported a bumper year, but these figures are tied in  to a great effort by local conservation groups. Barn Owl numbers increased where concerted efforts had been made to provide both habitat improvement and nest sites. Most groups including the ones in East Anglia reported a poor year. The very hot and dry weather, especially early in the spring, meant that vole numbers were down. Barn Owls either didn't risk breeding or produced eggs only for their nests to fail. Hunting opportunities in the dry and settled weather would have been good, but if the prey weren't breeding there was simply nothing to catch. I was grateful to a local ringer who got in touch to tell me that preliminary checks were showing very few owls were breeding locally. It helped me to watch our owls a little more closely.

Of course, here on the farm, the owls began nesting in March confident in a ready supply of food. The feisty dark female took west nest box and I soon saw her taking food in to owlets. Our original female was pushed away from the main nesting area and surprisingly nested in the farm chimney. During the final days of May, we saw owlets hopping in and out of the chimney. I would hazard a guess at three owlets but with such an inaccessible nest site it was difficult to say. Meanwhile the darker female reared at least three youngsters, all female. I watched these as they first began peeping out of the nest box at me and then began hopping about on the nest box porch. They fledged into the nearby trees where they could practice their flying skills hopping about from branch to branch. They were a delight to watch.

As usual second broods followed. By September, I knew the dark female had take the box in the combine shed while the older female had moved further away to the beehive box on the periphery of the farm. It worries me that she is getting pushed out by the younger, more assertive owl. We've had two pairs on the farm since 2014 and they've tolerated each other well but I watch at feeding time and the dark female will send our old lady off if she has a chance. I feed in three different places to give our original lady a good chance of getting some food but it is sad to see. I believe she is fifteen this year and after what happened to Daddy Kestrel, I fear for her. Nonetheless she reared another brood of two or three and brought them across into the yard for food in the autumn. The brood in the combine shed were a raucous lot and were probably joined by the beehive brood as they hissed noisily from the roof struts as I ventured into the yard with food every evening.

We had our tragedies with the owlets as is the case with nature. Soon after the summer broods had fledged we found one trapped in the combine. To this day we have little idea how she got into the grain cart but she did and was extremely weak when rescued.I still regret letting her hide in the straw where she died but hindsight is a wonderful thing. The second casualty was predated, possibly by a buzzard considering her injuries and this one was from the autumn brood. Fledging is a precarious business as this year shows.

Regrettably, I didn't get the owlets ringed this season. We were totally spoiled with Paddy as he would come out to visit us purposely to catch our owlets which were always much earlier to fledge than the other owls in the area. We have found since Simon took over, that by the time he is ready to ring the owlets in our locality ours have already fledged. I need to remedy this. Paddy has data for our farm since the 1990s and it would be a terrible shame to let that data lapse.

                                                              (Old photo 2013)

2025 had one notable difference for me and it was a disappointing one. Usually the owlets  from the second broods stay on site all winter and my best viewing opportunities occur in late winter when the owl will readily fly in for food, sometimes eight or nine at a time. This year the owlets dispersed from the farm in December.Perhaps with the female being more territorial she sent the youngsters off at this point. We certainly heard a lot of screeching. I also wonder if the incredibly mild and settled weather we had well into December meant the owlets felt confident to leave the natal nest site and look for territories of their own. There was also a more sinister reason that I considered. We had avian flu close by. I saved a cygnet from the adults that were drowning it and after advice from a wildlife charity I took it further down the river. On the way I saw three other dead cygnets and realised that I may be moving an ill bird about. Sure enough Defra confirmed that the swans had avian flu. This was early November. The adult swans were attacking the young birds because they knew they were ill. Could it be possible tat the owls sent their youngsters off to keep them safe from the threat of bird flu? I don't think we lost the owlets or I would have found at least some of them but it could explain a change in their normal behaviour.

So 2025 was a mixed year for us. I had some beautiful encounters with the owls but some heart wrenching moments too. We reared potentially twelve owlets, ten of which dispersed and are hopefully looking to rear youngsters of their own . As I sit and type,I wonder what 2026 will bring. There will be big changes on the farm but I will remain a constant for the owls and do my best for them..