I had planned to go out and check Barn Owl boxes yesterday but, of course, the wind decided to gust up to 40+mph, plus a few heavy showers of rain, put paid to that, so this morning Laura, Daniel and I went to do what we had intended to do yesterday. Our first stop was Echo Lodge Farm where, on our last visit there, on the 13th June, there were two chicks that were too small to ring. Two weeks later and they were just right, so we ringed two chicks. We invited the landowner along to see what her land management was helping, and she was delighted. It turns out that she is friends with the other farmer whose land is currently supporting the other two Barn Owl nests we knew have either eggs or chicks.
We went from there to check that a Jackdaw at Somerford Farm had fledged and cleaned out the nest box so that it was fit for a Barn Owl. This box has been up for a good few years but last year was the first time that it was successful. Hopefully it won’t be too late for them to try again this year.
Our next stop was one that we couldn’t get near to last time due to some mental Belted Galloways in the field at Ravensroost who just wanted to chase our car all over the place. I have spent enough time wiping Beltie drool off my car to want to do it again! This time we parked up on the verge, climbed over the gate and carried the ladder down to the box. They were still bouncy and enthusiastic, but were also scared of the ladder it seemed, so they never got close. This was a sad encounter: as we opened the box an adult Stock Dove flew out. There were two chicks in the nest: one was recently dead and the second was very floppy. The dead one had clearly starved, it’s crop was absolutely empty. I removed the dead bird and left the other behind in the hope that the adult might be better able to cope with just the one. I will check again in a few days to see how it is getting on. We didn’t ring it.
From there we headed to the two boxes on the west side of Blakehill Farm. These were just about the first boxes we visited this year, way back on the 14th April. There were pairs of Barn Owl occupying each of the two boxes. However, there were no eggs, no signs of breeding, so we gave them a good long time to get down to business without being disturbed. I think it is a good job that we did. From first egg laying it takes, normally, 32 days for the eggs to hatch so, even if they had laid in the next few days, that would have taken to mid-May before they hatched. Once hatched they are in the nest for, typically, 53 days and they become able to be ringed at approximately 30 days post-hatching. That is once their feet have grown large enough for the rings not to slip off.
Arriving at our first box, in Pouchers Field, we nearly caught the female in our hand net as she came flying out of the box upon our approach: a hopeful sign. A much better signal was the hissing we could hear emanating from the box! Upon opening we found four chicks: three were the right size for ringing, the other will need another couple of weeks, so we ringed three of them.
I know that some people who aren’t ringers worry about whether or not the birds are stressed by the experience. All I can say is that this one certainly wasn’t:
I suppose if I had eaten quite as much as this youngster has clearly done I would probably feel that sleepy myself. Just look at that belly!
Having ringed these three we then went off to Allotment Field to check on the box there. Absolutely delighted to find another three healthy and well-fed chicks.
Our final box of the day, final because the wind was really whipping up by then and Daniel, who will possibly be climbing rigging in these sorts of winds next week, was more than uncomfortable at the top of the ladder. This was at White Lodge. As we were driving down to the box, I have never seen the fields and sky so full of Jackdaws. Later, as Daniel was cleaning the box out, the sky became dark with two huge flocks of Jackdaw. We are not talking tens, we are talking hundreds of them! Unsurprisingly, this box had clearly been a successful Jackdaw nest again this year.
After this long delay in the commencement of Barn Owl breeding, it is such a relief to find that, of the 16 boxes we have checked so far this year in the Braydon Forest, we have ringed chicks in three, have another box to ring another three in in the next two weeks, and another on eggs which, hopefully, we will ring in about five to six weeks. It isn’t as though the other boxes have failed: although the Stock Dove probably will be a complete failure, at least three of them had Jackdaw chick success, with chicks ringed in two and one known Jackdaw failure plus, sadly, one containing a dead adult Barn Owl. However, five boxes out of sixteen containing breeding by the target species is a good proportion.
A big thank you to Laura for providing the car with a roof rack (how long does it take a roof rack to get to the UK from Belgium?) and to both Daniel and Laura for doing the vast majority of the grunt work today, in particular doing all of the dirty work clearing out emptied Jackdaw nests.
I am out with the Salisbury Plain team tomorrow: let’s hope we can get similar results tomorrow!
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 