A sad find.

 Despite the bitingly cold weather we have had over the past week, the natural world is looking forward to spring. Our Kestrels wait, side by side now, reestablishing their bond and showing a real interest in west nest box. I was also thrilled to see two Little Owls perched on the straw bales. They haven't been noticeable since last Autumn. They too are acknowledging the longer days and stronger sunshine that tells them spring is not too far away. The Barn Owls show me that they too are thinking of new families. They seem more hostile to the youngsters who still hiss at me from the straw stack as I approach and two adults are flying from the combine shed together. It fills me with excitement to see them like this

But there is one bird that won't be finding a mate and looking for a nest site this spring. After Storm Isher I walked down in trepidation. The wind had been relentless and the owls were unable to fly out for food. I knew one night alone wouldn't hurt them as they had been well fed during the cold, frosty spell. My biggest worry was that they would be blown out into the worst of the weather and become predated. Yet the youngsters were more experienced now and thankfully, when I arrived to check the following morning, there were no owls in the grass field or around the yard. It seemed that they had stayed in their roosts and kept themselves safe. 

It was as I returned to the yard that I spotted a light shape in the open sheds near the house. I went inside to check. Now, I am always imagining casualties, it simply goes hand in hand with what I do. When you look out for Barn Owls as I do, you imagine the worst for them too. Only recently I convinced myself that a fawn shape hunched on the side of the A47 was an injured owl only to find on the return journey that it was a sugar beet!! So the majority of the time my investigations bring me relief but not so that morning. I knew even from a distance that this was one of my Barn Owls laying dead on the dusty floor.

The poor thing was paper thin, just feather and bone and had undoubtedly starved. Its beautiful obsidian eyes were firmly shut and its wings were majestically spread in what seemed like a gesture of hopelessness. Initially I thought it was a male but its wings and back were deeply barred in grey  reminding me of an especially dark female that I had been watching on the farm since the summer. It had been dead for a while and I suspect had succumbed during the stormy weather in early January when Storm Henk brought us rain that made hunting impossible.

After twelve years I still find this hard. I'd heard of owls starving during the wet weather and even advised some people how to help them but never imagined it would happen on our site. I leave twenty day old chicks out each night, there was plenty to be had. Perhaps it hadn't flown in as rigorously as the others when the parents stopped providing for it. maybe it became injured and stranded in the shed. It possibly may not have even been one of our youngsters. Just a couple of years back we found a starved youngster in these very barns and its ring told us it came from a nearby nest site so maybe this bird was also from away and hadn't realised there was food offered. Since Christmas I had seen an owl peering at me from these sheds on my morning walk. How I wished now that I had kept a closer eye upon it.

I am beyond sad to notice that where two young owls sat closely in the straw waiting for me each evening there is now only one.I loved  the way these fledglings continued with their close bond despite leaving the nest box in October and it makes the death seem even more poignant. However, there is no point in dwelling on what has happened I have to move on. To look out for the owls that greet me each evening and watch for the kestrels on my morning. To do what I do and make a difference where I can.