A barn owl from a busy day at Sheepdrove October with accredited BTO bird ringer and owl man Captain Jerry Woodham, ably assisted by Sheepdrove Organic Farm’s Mike Barker, carefully inspecting all the boxes on the farm for signs of breeding.
Back in June they ringed two clutches of three chicks and found a female sitting on seven eggs at a third box. October’s visit showed successful fledging of all the chicks (no dead carcasses in the box or evidence of rings) and the box with the eggs was also devoid of any abandoned eggs, so we can assume that once again there was a successful fledging – hurrah!
Jerry and Mike also found a roosting pair of owls in the box containing the eggs back in June. The male was a bird they have encountered twice before while the female was new to them and was ringed.
At Red Barn they found a five week old chick sitting alone but warm and reassuringly well fed! Barn Owls have a long breeding season and will take advantage of mild weather in the autumn (which we’ve had plenty of) to try and push out a second clutch if possible. The Sheepdrove Red Barn pair have sensibly decided not to push their luck and stick with one chick in the hope the weather would remain reasonably mild (which it has – hurrah!) so this bird will have fledged by early December.
Jerry feels that it’s been a successful breeding season at Sheepdrove, with three individual pairs managing to raise and fledge between 9 and 12 chicks.
We look forward to seeing Jerry back at Sheepdrove this month to check that the late chick has got away.
