Two more sessions checking on our owl boxes in the Braydon Forest: the first on the 24th May, the second a week later, on the 31st May. As always, these visits are carried out under a Schedule 1 licence issued by the BTO, on behalf of Natural England and DEFRA. I also have an endorsement on my licence that allows me and my team, when with me, to process any adults we catch whilst carrying out these checks.
Friday, 24th I was joined by Miranda. We were on a two hour deadline, as Miranda was scheduled to be setting up Longworth live mammal traps for a survey in her local area in the afternoon. The morning started well, but there was a slight issue. Our first box is situated in an oak tree that overhangs Woodbridge Brook, adjacent to Home Farm outside of Brinkworth. On approaching the box both adults flew off. The owners of the site are totally invested in what is happening with their Barn Owls. Whenever I arrive on site I get a breakdown of the parents’ activity levels over their fields in recent weeks. They know the constraints and do not disturb the box at all. We were pretty confident that they would be breeding in the box, as they have every year since I started monitoring them. As we approached the box, I could see that the access hatch was slightly open. The catch, which was simply a bent metal pin, had corroded and broken off. Andy, one of the owners, disappeared off to make a new catch for the hatch. We tried to simply replace it with another bent pin, but it proved impossible as the broken part of the original pin was blocking the access point.. He ended up providing a small wooden bar that we screwed into the wall of the box to hold the access flap in place. Upon looking into the box I found five owlets and one remaining egg. They were not big enough to ring yet: another two to three weeks before that will be done. Unfortunately, as is always the way when you have a time constraint, we took far more time there than intended, which meant we had to curtail our activity.
Next stop was Gospel Oak Farm where we have two boxes. Both boxes last year were taken over by Grey Squirrels, much to our disappointment. The site’s owner had cleared out all of the squirrel materiel over the winter, hoping that they would not be back this year. The first box, which has previously had both Barn Owls and Jackdaws, in different years, had a lot of soft nesting material in it, but no sign of any breeding yet from any species. A lot of preparation but no result yet. The second box, which is usually the roosting site for the adult Barn Owls, held a brood of three Jackdaw chicks. They will be ready for ringing in a couple of weeks.
Our last port of call was White Lodge Farm. We only had time to visit the one box: the easiest of the four visited today. Unfortunately, the fields are so wet that we are having to park away from the boxes and carry all of our kit to them. This was the one box I could drive straight to, as it is in an oak tree in a hedgerow that lines one of the farm tracks: and a proper hard core track at that. Like box two at Gospel Oak, this box had two Jackdaw chicks in situ: both about a week behind the birds over the way from them.
So, of four boxes checked we had one looking good for Barn Owls, two with Jackdaw broods and one in development.
Friday, 31st May, was a late afternoon session so that Ellie and Jonny could join me: both being extremely busy with work. Jonny was my first ever trainee, and Ellie was my second, Jonny now has his A-permit, Ellie has her C-permit and I will put her forward for her A-permit whenever she decides that she wants to. As much as I love working with my current trainees, it is special when the three of us manage to get together. We didn’t plan to do too many boxes and started at Lower Pavenhill. This was a new box that I put up over two years ago. In year one it didn’t attract any interest. In year two I found a couple of Barn Owl feathers in the box, but no pellets or poop, so I was a little concerned about whether it was in the right place. We had the fun of a herd of some thirty horses, including a number of foals and some frisky yearlings, who were intensely interested in what we were doing. It is a good job that three of us are not bothered by large livestock as they became our entourage. Anyway, we got to the box and Jonny put his large hand net over the box, covering the entrance hole. He tapped on the box to persuade any adult to leave. When nothing happened in response, he removed the net and an owl flew out! Ellie suggested that he try again, he went to get his net when a second owl flew out! When Jonny opened the box there were three very small youngsters and an additional egg in there. Hopefully we will be ringing a brood in a month or so! It is nice to see a completely new site come online.
Our next stop was the Plain Farm / Drill Farm complex. The Plain Farm box was accessed through a field of heifers, followed by a field of milkers! Lots of cow pats to avoid, not to mention lots of very large bodies to pass through. When we reached the box, Jonny wielded his hand net to good effect: catching the adult female as she came off the nest. She was ringed by us last June, in the Drill Farm box, along with three youngsters. This year she has five youngsters and there was one unhatched egg in the Plain Farm box. As these chicks were all ready for ringing, it is likely that the egg is infertile. We did ring the brood.
Our final stop was the Drill Farm box. Again, we caught an adult as it left the box. It was a male. Our supposition is that it is probably the partner of the female at Plain Farm. More interestingly, its ring number, GY63202, is not one of ours. It will be interesting to find out where it has arrived from.
I decided that we had done enough for one evening: lots of walking over uneven terrain and an arthritic right ankle do not play well together! The season is shaping up pretty well: eight broods in eleven boxes, with another dozen boxes left to check. Let’s hope that the others are as initially successful as these first few, and that the initial success translates into fledging success!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 