I was helped this morning by Ellie. This morning’s session was mainly about checking up on whether any Barn Owls were taking advantage of the boxes emptied after the Jackdaws had fledged. With the late start to the breeding season I was hoping that they might have chosen to do so. Unfortunately, not so, so far.
We started off at Clattinger Farm, meeting at 8:30 and heading off in my car. One of the boxes at Upper Waterhay had roosting Stock Doves and nesting material but no sign of actual breeding. The others remained as empty as they were after we cleaned them out. Two of the farms have seen Barn Owls flying around the fields, so there is still hope.
We started off at Clattinger Farm to check on Swallows. I have definitely got my timings wrong this year. Lack of the car was my excuse for missing the first broods. Incompetence has seen me miss most of the second broods. Definitely hoping that I get it right for any third broods. As the Wildlife Trust staff weren’t about this morning, we couldn’t get into the stables as they are kept locked, but we could get into the adjoining sheds. Pleased to find one Swallow nest with three warm eggs and parents flying around in shed 5. We will have a look at the others on Friday morning when Ellie P, of the Wildlife Trust, is about. There was plenty of adult activity, so hopeful we might get some results.
Our first Barn Owl box checked is a new one on site at Clattinger. This was the first time I have checked this box. A Stock Dove flew out as we approached and I was pleased to find two warm eggs in the box. We will give it another three weeks and have another look.
From there we headed over to Upper Waterhay to check their Barn Owl boxes and see whether there were any Swallows on eggs or ready for ringing. As I have already said, the boxes showed no signs of Barn Owl activity. Most of the Swallow nests were empty, but with plenty of adult activity, so I am pretty sure that a third brood is on the way. We will check back in a few weeks. However, one of the nests did contain four youngsters, so Ellie got to ring her first Swallow pulli. I say pulli because they were all nicely tucked up in the nest and showed no signs of trying to fly away, but their wing feathers were pretty near full grown, so they won’t be there much longer: so we finally got our timing right!
From there we checked out one more box before arriving at Drill Farm. When I last checked this box, on the 10th of this month, there were three very small chicks and two eggs. Because there were four eggs there on the first visit, 13th June, I felt that there would be the chance that the chicks would be big enough to ring. This time there was one somewhat bigger and two somewhat smaller chicks. The two unhatched eggs had disappeared. What was encouraging about this box was that it had a well-stocked larder of wood mice along with the chicks.
We went from there to check on our boxes at Home Farm Barn, which was empty. Then to Somerford Farm, where the barn based box had a pair of Stock Doves roosting. There was no sign of nesting though. The other two boxes were empty.
With Barn Owls in the Braydon Forest, this year we have ringed 12 young from five boxes, last year we ringed 31 young from 9 boxes. It is not hard to see that things have been a lot more difficult for them this year than last. We will see how it ends up in October when I clean out the boxes for the winter period.
Ringing In The Braydon Forest & Beyond 