Chris came round and we set off to the Lady Bay area and fields that are probably the closest farmland to Nottingham City Centre.
Some time ago I’d done a survey at a farm yard that was being redeveloped. There had been Barn Owls around the farm but no evidence of recent breeding. The Notts Wildlife Trust had erected 2 boxes in nearby fields and I was inspecting them to see if there had been any uptake as I’d had several reports of Barn Owls being seen in the area.
The first box we went to had 2 cracking chicks that were almost full grown. What a
surprise and what a bonus for the Notts WT. They were delighted with the find.
From here, we went over to inspect the boxes on the Rushcliffe Golf Course. Despite having good habitat and us finding the occasional pellet, we’d never had breeding birds here. The first box had come down off the tree and we decided to take it off the site to hang elsewhere. The other two boxes also gave us a nil return but we did find several golf balls as we beat through the undergrowth to get to a box.
I’d recently found a new site for a new box near to Colston Bassett and I cleaned and repainted the box and will hang it at the new site later this week.
Today, we were ringing the last chicks that we’d found on our early round of inspections in May.
Boxes around Kinoulton, Hickling and Widmerpool have produced Barn Owls for us for some time and we were hoping that they’d come up trumps again. They all have experienced adults and the box at Kinoulton had 2 chicks and the Hickling box produced 4.
The next box at Hickling Pastures is a new one so was being used for the first time.
The landowner here said he hadn’t seen the owls around so I was half expecting another failure. However we were pleasantly surprised to find 2 nice chicks in the box. Photos were taken and we were off to Upper Broughton and another box with an old pair that produced last year. The female was still in the box with the 3 small chicks but they were big enough to ring and we left them in peace.
The last of the day was another good box at Widmerpool that had 4 chicks but one was freshly dead and I can only put the demise down to the lack of food.
I left it in the box to be recycled by its siblings. Another 14 chicks today.
Gordon came round and we had a date with the photographer of the Bingham Advertiser for the ringing of the chicks that featured earlier in this blog with my Canadian friends.
The Farmer and friends were there as well so it was with fingers crossed that I climbed the ladder and opened the box.
They were still there, the three well grown young doing well and no sign of the cache of voles, now snaffled up by the hungry chicks.
Marie, the photographer did her stuff and we moved on to other boxes in the Vale of Belvoir. The first near Screveton had produced 5 chicks last year and this year had two that were almost full grown. The next box near Aslockton had failed last year but the adults had laid eggs this year so we hoped that the experience would see them producing this time.
The Farmer and his son turned up to see what they had and it was great to find 3 chicks in the box.
The next box at Whatton is one of our most reliable boxes and yielded another 3 chicks this year but this was followed by our only failure of the day when the box at Langar failed after laying eggs. However, another dozen chicks for us. A good day.
I picked up Neil Pinder as my assistant today and he brought his Daughter Zoe with him, probably so that she could do the writing for me while he was off chasing butterflies.
Our first stop was a barn at Tollerton and we found two nice chicks in the box and one of the adults roosting in the roof beams. A good start to the day!
Next, my best producing box at Gamston that has given us over 30 chicks over the years despite changing females every other year. We added 2 females and a male to the box’s progeny and headed out to the new convent being built on Bunny Hill.
Here, we were met by Sister Mary Julian and another couple of Sisters who’d come along to see the owl chicks.
There were 4 beauties in the box, all females which were ringed and photographed
before being returned to their box.
So a good day with 9 Barn Owls added to our total.
We were on 497 chicks since 2000 and I had chicks in boxes waiting to be ringed so this bright Sunday morning would be a good time to ring them.
Kate and I drove out to Gotham where we met friends Neil and Jackie Glenn who live in the village.
The first box had 2 chicks which put us on 499 so only one to go; the next would be our 500th chick.
Kim and Lindsay Simpson have a homestead on the edge of Gotham and have a large field with long grass and young trees; superb Barn Owl habitat which has rewarded them with nesting Barn Owls. I knew that these chicks would be well advanced as the chicks had already hatched when I looked in the box last May.
Sure enough, the 3 chicks in the box were well feathered with the oldest, a beautiful female which will have many spots and apricot blush collar.
Photos were taken, the other chicks ringed and we put them back into the box.
Elated, we carried on to the next box at Kingston where we came back to Earth when we found the female I’d caught in May still present but no sign of the eggs she’d had in May.
From here, we went to do the regular breeding pair at Hathern; this is Leicestershire but we’d been ringing chicks in boxes here for the past 6 years. We met David Stock, the local man who keeps an eye on things here and we ringed 2 chicks.
Back to Rempstone where we were disappointed to find that the owls we’d found in two boxes here had both deserted which we can only put down to a lack of food.
Last April, Gordon and I erected six new boxes in good habitat in Broxtowe. Normally, we wouldn’t expect to get Barn Owls in new boxes for some time and wouldn’t bother to do inspections for nesting birds. However, we’d had reports that Barn Owls had been seen around the boxes so we decided to have a look.
In the first box, we were surprised to find a female with three small chicks and 2 eggs yet to hatch. A nearby box had the male of the pair roosting and a box across the road but on the same farm had another female with 3 chicks, 2 eggs and a small dead chick which we left in for recycling.
A remarkable start to the day which proved that birds were already on site but had nowhere to nest.
Later, we found that two more of the new boxes had chicks that were big enough for me to ring; these birds must have laid eggs within days of us erecting the boxes.
We also found a well grown brood of three in a box that had provided chicks now for 3 years.
Gordon’s BBOP project goes from strength to strength with an increase of 3 pairs on the year to 8 pairs.
With only 3 chicks to go for our 500th, I was looking for a brood that we could use for a photo shoot and thought a box near to my home at Plumtree would be ideal.
I went round to see what had happened since I found a female on five eggs back in May. Apart from 2 old eggs, the box was empty; what a disappointment. This happens occasionally and it’s impossible to know why this happens; possibly the male gets killed on the road so the food supply dries up; the female moves on and the eggs are taken by Jackdaws. I did find a Little Owl nesting in the tree though so not all bad!!
When doing our box inspections in May, we’d found that two boxes had fallen from the trees and required rehanging. Unfortunately, one was a breeding box and the birds had moved on.
On the way, we stopped off to check a box that had 5 eggs last time we looked and we found 3 chicks which I ringed there and then. They were too small to tell what sex they were and I will have another look in two weeks so I can sex them.
On to the box repairs and we cleaned out the first box and rehung on the same tree with some stronger brackets.
The next box needed moving to another tree as it had been overgrown; we identified another tree with improved access and put the box on that.
I went over to Gordon’s as we were going to do a round of his Broxtowe Barn Owl Project Boxes; hopefully any chicks found would be big enough to ring.
The first box, at Bramcote had breeding owls last year but was found to be empty, however, we found the pair in another box nearby with 2 very small chicks and 3 eggs, one just hatching. So a good start.
We’d been told by a local birder that he’d seen Kestrels around the next box, near Trowell. Kestrels had bred in this box for the first 2 years but last year, we’d had breeding Barn Owls. I opened the box expecting Kestrels and found Barn Owls, a male and female and 2 chicks which I ringed. The female here is all white and last year, she fooled me into thinking she was a male. This time the male was in the box and she was identified as the female due to her greater weight. She had a new toy boy, I’d ringed the male as a chick last year in a box at Brinsley.
In the afternoon, we’d arranged to meet local County Coucillor, Ken Rigby who’d made a donation to the project out of his Division Fund. The box chosen was one that had had breeding birds for the last couple of years and the Farmer had reported use again this year. When I looked in the box, I thought there was a pair of adults and a big chick but on looking further, realised that it was a 3 big chicks, about 6 weeks old and far in advance of any brood found so far. I ringed all 3 chicks and Ken was delighted in seeing the birds at such close quarters. Photo were taken and the chicks put back in the box.
I met Clive, Chris and Gordon at the Rushcliffe CP to inspect the pole boxes there. These boxes were the first erected by our project back in 1997. The park then was also very new and hundreds of trees were planted which have grown so fast that most of the boxes have now been engulfed by the trees. For the first time in many years, we found no Barn Owls on the Park. The boxes are no longer ideal for Barn Owls and the project will probably have to abandon them and erect some new boxes in the grassland that is left unmown to attract the small mammals on which the Barn Owls prey.
After we’d finished at the park, Gordon and I carried on to inspect some boxes that I’d found Barn Owls but no eggs back in May to see if they’d laid any eggs. Two boxes were empty, the birds have moved on or nesting elsewhere but the 3rd box had two adults, one of which I’d ringed as a female in May as she has some small spots under the wings. However, I suspect that this is a spotted male as there was also a heavily spotted definite female in the box and the pair have probably got a brood nearby and are using this box as a roost.
