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..