With a couple of successful Jackdaw nests confirmed on the 1st July and, tragically, finding that our Barn Owl nest had been predated with the chicks at a very early stage on that visit, I wanted to find out if the Barn Owls were going to try again. I also wanted to check on what the Swallows have been doing: recognising that I have left it a bit late in the season to find chicks to ring. I was joined by Sarah for the session. We also planned to see if, post-Jackdaws, Gospel Oak Farm’s boxes were going to have Barn Owls breeding.
We started at Upper Waterhay Farm first. The first box we checked, the Chancel box, had clear signs of roosting Barn Owl, as did the West box where the young were predated back in July. The North box, which successfully fledged Jackdaws, was hosting a resting Jackdaw, which flew off as we approached. Going to our fourth box, the Paddock box, as I stopped the car and got out, a female Barn Owl flew out and deposited the complimentary and, seemingly obligatory, guano spray on the rear of the car.
We took that as a good sign! When I checked the box there were four eggs in there. Hopefully we will have some success in this box. I have ringed Barn Owl broods as late as the 12th September: two broods in 2019, one at Upper Waterhay Farm, the other at Echo Lodge Farm.
In between the first three and the fourth Barn Owl box, we stopped off at the farm yard to let Richard, the farmer, know what we had found so far and to check on the Swallow nests. As I expected, most had already fledged, and they were flying in and around the outhouses that we were checking. Sarah noticed that under some peeled back roof insulation there was a nest with a couple of heads peeking over the side. I climbed up to find four chicks, feathers medium, ready for ringing and a week or two off fledging. Sarah got to ring her first Swallow pulli.
Moving the ladder to check on a couple of other nests, I found this on a shelf a couple of feet below an old nest:
Swallow, Hirundo rustica, pullus skeleton
Swallows simply do not recognise a chick that is not in the nest. This must have fallen out of the nest and simply starved to death. The skeleton is completely intact, so there is no hint of predation.
We had planned to check the boxes at Gospel Oak Farm but, as we were putting the ladder away at the Paddock box we could hear thunder rumbling in the background, and then I saw a spectacular lightning strike two fields over from where we were. As it wasn’t raining, and the sky looked pretty clear, we headed off to Gospel Oak Farm. Arriving on site, we drove down to the first box, just in time for the heavens to open. Not wishing to be climbing a ladder, up against a tree, in a thunderstorm, I decided to call it a session and we headed home.
Nice to have some Swallows for Sarah to ring, and encouraging that there is the possibility of a Barn Owl brood, so a good use of a morning.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 