One of my productive Barn Owl sites is adding another string to its bow. The farmer, as well as providing lots of grassland, also sets aside large tracts for cover crops, and he is very keen on his wildlife, if a little reticent about advertising the fact, which is why, out of respect for his concerns, I am not going to give any pointers as to where it is.
Suffice to say that, of the ten Barn Owl boxes I have managed to check so far (roof rack for new car should be here in the next couple of days – it isn’t just Barn Owls who are a bit behind this breeding season!), he has two of the three with breeding in progress.
Last Wednesday he contacted Jonny and his project Peewit team and me to let us know that, whilst out deciding what to do about a failed cover crop, he saw some movement and identified four Lapwing chicks. He fenced off the area they were in, so the cattle couldn’t disturb them, and on Thursday evening the Peewit team and I went searching for them. It was very hot and they were well hidden and we didn’t find them. However, we did find this:
The team said that they would return on Monday or Tuesday with drones, thermal imaging cameras etc to try and locate the chicks and they would give me a shout if they found them.
We told the farmer about the nest and Friday morning he asked for a What3Words location so that he could put an electric fence around the nest. Unfortunately, in this instance, the W3W location was inaccurate and he couldn’t find it.
After my rather disappointing Red Lodge session on Saturday (sorry Song Thrushes, you were lovely but…), I went to the farm to see if I could find the nest. I was a little concerned when I arrived to find a flock of about 50 Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls wandering around the field foraging, and three pairs of adult Lapwing circling and alarm calling. The gulls pushed off as soon as I got out of the car, which was a bit of a relief. I sat back in the car hoping that an adult would return to the nest, but after 15 minutes there was no sign, so I decided to carry out a grid search of the area where we had seen it. After an hour of searching I had to admit defeat. It was also starting to rain and I was conscious of getting out of the way so that Mum could come and protect her nest from the weather.
At 7:28 this morning I got a text from Jonny: “Morning, we have chicks”. By 7:35 this morning I had got up, got dressed and was on site and was privileged to ring and weigh these beauties:
I was home and breakfasting by 8:30: that’s the way to go ringing! A huge thank you to the Project Peewit team for allowing me the privilege of processing this little group. That brings my total of UK pulli species ringed to 31 and my total UK species ringed to 112. One day I really must do some overseas ringing!
It is good to know that two of my Barn Owl sites are also supporting Lapwing and Curlew. There are some very good farmers in the Braydon Forest area who are keen to support their wildlife and have signed up to project Peewit and the longer running Curlew monitoring project.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 