LIVE STREAM
It appears that the resident female Barn Owl, occupying our ‘live stream nest box, is not interested in bonding this year. In April there was a male calling and we were hoping that they would get together, but sadly for whatever reason, this has not been the case. Whether she decides to have a late brood or not remains to be seen.
BOX MAINTENANCE
Now that restrictions have been relaxed, the team has been able to start repairing and replacing damaged boxes and in some instances installing boxes at new sites.
Firstly the old box has to be removed: https://t.co/bXjoSBcejQ Before the new box can be installed.
NEST BOX MONITORING
The monitoring program is now in full swing with mixed results, it appears that many of the nest boxes are unoccupied which is a cause for concern going forward to next year and sightings are sporadic.
Out of the boxes which were checked yesterday, 2 boxes had an adult with chicks and or eggs but the chicks were tiny and approx. 3 to 4 weeks behind what we would expect at this time of the year.
The final box we checked did however have 2 owlets
2 females both of a good size and in good health, which we were able to ring (under licence) before returning them to the nest box.
SIGHTINGS
It was interesting to hear, on the recent ‘Springwatch’ series, the thoughts of Chris Packham on how much the unseasonal Spring weather has affected the breeding season of a lot of birds this year. We can only wonder if this has impacted the Wirral Barn Owl population. We are not receiving any reports of deceased owls, so we are baffled as to where our birds have gone.
Now more than ever we are in need of your Barn Owl sightings to assist us with our conservation work.
Stay safe
WBOT
2024