Owl ringing (and more)

I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days checking nest boxes in the south of Nottingham with Jim. The target species were barn owl, kestrel and little owl. Some readers may be aware that tawny owls have had a pretty bad year this year and now it appears that barn owls are also having a bad time of it. Only two of the boxes I helped Jim to check had barn owls in residence. One box that had held four chicks and a chipping egg last time Jim checked it, only had two painfully thin chicks left. The second box was more encouraging, containing four healthy chicks.

One of the two thin owl chicks

It really isn't the beak you have to worry about.

Barn owls are so chilled in the hand

Barn owl with spots - probaly a female

Still got a bit of fluff to lose yet!

Chilling out on the bonnet of the landy

 

The one little owl nest we checked had failed, despite the adult previously having been on eggs but it seems that at least kestrels are doing well. On one day, we had five boxes with either four or five chicks. The chicks in one brood were too big to ring (risk of them jumping out of the nest) but the others were all ringed.

 

One of the younger kestrel chicks ringed

Older kestrel chick

 

The second day of ringing was dominated by stock doves, with by the far the majority of the boxes containing this species. Most of the boxes had birds sitting on eggs but a couple had ringable chicks in. They aren’t the prettiest of chicks are they?

Check that out for an egg tooth!

It will be interesting to see the tallies at the end of the year, but if this trend continues, it doesn’t bode well for the barn owls this year!