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.
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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.
