Super Sunday…….
Dominic and I had a lie in and met up at 09.15 to head back to a farm in Sidlesham to clear the area around a box, repair the door on a box with Stock Dove nesting in it and look at a natural nest high in the canopy.
I headed off with Will to do some tree clearance and look in the nest while Dominic repaired the box.
Natural nest with lots of white wash around
Owl box opened up to allow owls to see the hole.
Next we headed to Wittering to a new farm to us and met with Julia and her lovely young family. Dominic and I headed out to the first box where owls had been seen coming in oand out of the box. We found two beautiful barn owls almost ready to fledge in this box but suspect there will have been others who had already left.
Male and female barn owl nearly ready to fledge Photo courtesy of Dominic
We headed to the next box but it seems that the local squirrels and jackdaws had been using this one and it took a goof 30 minutes to empty it out. I hope one of the young owls might find this box and roost in it.
Photo courtesy of Dominic
The next box was a real surprise as it had 2 Tawny Owlets in it! The final 2 boxes had Stock Dove nesting (one in and one on). This farm is doing such an amazing job at providing great nesting and feeding habitat.
Photo courtesy of Dominic
A Trip Out With Ben…….
I met up with Ben after work in Rackham to check two barn owl boxes. After the rain on and off throughout the day the evening was clear and warm and we wandered around the edge of the Amberley Wild Brooks towards the boxes.
The boxes were set along a field edge on sturdy trees and over looked a beautiful natural meadow with swallows and house Martin's skimming the tops of the tall grasses.
Ben set the ladder against the tree of the first box and just as the ladder settled two adult Barn Owls flew out of the box. The box was too high to get a stopper to unfortunately. Ben checked the box but ont his occasion there was no sign of any breeding attempt. We asked the landowners to keep an eye just incase they decide to nest a little later, or maybe they have chicks in another box nearby.
We trotted over to the second box which had Kestrels breeding in it. Earlier on int he day a kestrel was seen sitting in the nest box hole. As we approached this box there was a din in the tree next to it and we spotted four recently fledged Kestrels.
I checked the box and found a very old cold barn owl egg which we discarded and whitewash along the back of the box.
Such a stunning location here over looking the Wild Brooks with fabulous habitat for voles and mice.
While it is unusual for Kestrels to have a second brood, if they breed early enough they may have another try.
Ben and I wandered back towards the car and saw the White Tailed Eagle sat in its favourite tree (some way away).
Tilly having supper!
Ever wondered how an owl eats a mouse? This is not for the faint hearted!
Tilly’s next outing…………
A quick heads up and note for your diaries……Tilly will be appearing at The Sage House Summer Fair in Tangmere on 25th July 10-12.30am see details below.
https://www.dementiasupport.org.uk/event-details-registration/sage-house-summer-fair-2026-1
Summer Fair Flyer
Success for the National Trust
Dominic and I met Katie and Gabby at NT Slindon to see if the cleaned out owl boxes had attracted any owls this year.
We’d arranged to meet Jenna to check the Water Authority box so we headed there first. As Jenna opened the door Dominic noticed an owlet on the floor just inside and I saw one heading under a large tarpaulin, we quickly gathered these two up and checked them over. All was well.
One of the escapees!
Dominic shimmied up the ladder to check the box and Jenna and I started ringing the owls and recording the data including length of P7 to determine the age of the owlets, weight, and gender. Dominic handed down two more owlets and then declared that he also had two adult owls in the box as well.
The box is huge and has several perches and compartments within it giving space for the adults to have some space away from the owlets. This is the first time I have ringed both parents with their off-spring in a box in 15 years.
Adult barn owls - the blood on the chest of the male owl was probably from his last meal
While Dominic was putting the owls back in the box, I collected 10 pellets in individual tin foil packages for Saffron a PhD student at Bangor University looking at microplastics in barn owl pellets.
This owlet was hiding round the corner in the box - this was the oldest owlet in the clutch at 48 days old.
Barn owl chick
The mitigation box that was put up earlier in the year had an adult male barn owl roosting in it which was a fabulous result for the team. Another of the boxes housed 4 delightful owlets seen below. The habitat here clearly able to support multiple broods of healthy owls and their offspring.
Clutch of barn owls
We said goodbye to Katie and Gabby and Dominic has been roped in to putting up some more boxes in the autumn.
An unexpected call….
Tonight I collected Dominic after work and we headed back out to Sidlesham, David had messaged to say he thought there were Tawny Owlets in one of the other boxes on the Dairy Farm.
We followed him over to a part of the farm I had not seen before and sure enough when I clambered up the ladder there were two little faces staring at me from the back of the box.
The box is from https://owlandkestrel.co.uk/tawny-owl-nestbox/
Tawny owlets in an eco box
The owlets were ringed and safely put back in their box ready for the adults to come in later with food.
Tawny Owlet ringed by me
Tawny Owlet ringed by Dominic
Open Farm Day at Southend Barns, Sidlesham
Mariella Fleming was kind enough to invite me and Tilly to the Open Farm Sunday (https://farmsunday.org/) at their beautiful farm nestled in the countryside at Sidlesham near Chichester.
Southend Barns (southendbarns.co.uk) is a stunning location for weddings as well as other events. They have luxury bell tents on offer to stay in and the most amazing catering team. We were even lucky enough to meet 3 Gloucester Old Spots and some Alpacas including “Summer” a 1 day old Alpaca.
Display table at The Open Farm Sunday event at Sidlesham
Tillly had a busy day with hundreds of people coming to see her and have a cuddle. She is recovering now on top of the cupboard in the kitchen and having a well deserved sleep.
Taxidermy Barn Owl
This stunning owl was ringed by my mentor Barrie Watson some years ago and was sadly found by Will (Mariella’s husband) in the woods by the farm - they kept it and had it mounted in this beautiful frame - still bearing the ring it was given when it was a young owlet.
Visiting old friends…..
Dominic and I headed over to see some friends in Sidlesham who have several boxes that have been very successful over time. Last year sadly in the depths of the terrible breeding season that Barn Owls had (see BOT https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/barn-owl-facts/current-uk-barn-owl-population/) we did not visit this beautiful site. So, it was with delight I had a call to say there had been owls sighted carring prey into the box. But, not the ususal box- this year the owls had taken a fancy to a box in the barn rather than the tall oak tree.
5 barn owlets now bearing BTO rings for identification
Poor Dominic was almost green with the smell from this box as it was in the top of a very warm barn and there was also a maggoty carcass of a dead Stock Dove chick in the box which he kindly removed!
Some of the more photogenic owls are below. All of them were in exceedingly good health and we wsh them well in the future.
After spotting and ringing a brood of swallows in an adjacent barn we said a fond farewell to this beautiful location and look forward to returning next year.
Tawny Owlets at Brent Lodge…
Dominic and I joined Hannah Matthews at Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to start ringing some of the abandoned Tawny Owlets they had in their care. In total they currently have 12 Tawny Owlets.
Scientific name: Strix aluco
Breeds in broad-leaved and deciduous woodland.
Resident and sedentary in its habits.
Approximately 50,000 breeding pairs in the UK.
Amber-listed Bird of Conservation Concern.
Our most familiar owl, the Tawny Owl is found across Britain but is absent from Ireland. It favours woodland habitats, but it may also breed in larger rural and suburban gardens.
Tawny Owls breed early in the year, and their hooting calls can be heard from late autumn and through the winter months (BTO, 2026)
Tawny Owlet
Many of these owlets are released locally including at The Goodwood Estate, so hopefully we may bump into one another again if they happen to breed in the area.
New boxes at Petworth…..
Andrew Thompson (Leconfield Estate Manager) took me and Dominic to meet Liz nearby in Petworth, she has several boxes made and erected by her father who like Liz is a keen ornithologist.
First up we checked out a barn owl box near the yard where Liz has seen Kestrels taking in food and just as we got to the tree (having seen the local Little Owl on the way) we heard and saw an adult female Kestrel in proximity to the box. When I managed to get a peak in the box I saw this….
Kestrel Pullus
Mum stayed in the vicinity and let us know she was around still by contact calling and the youngsters called back to her too. There was quite a disparity between the ages of this brood.
Youngest chick
Oldest chick
We headed further out into the farm to an owl box in a tree, we immediately saw white wash on the brambles and thought we would be in luck. When I opened the box the layer of shredded pellets was up past the inspection hatch so I carefully dug some of the pellets out and when I looked in I could see some feet!I managed to poke my phone camera in and capture this gorgeous image.
Adult barn owl on nest with young
Having realised there was an adult in the box and unsure if she was on egss or very small young I decided to leave her in peace and that we could return to revisit later on. It wasn’t until I got home and looked more closely at the photo that I could see the very edge of the facial disc of an owlet in the top corner of the photo. Better to leave her with her young (not sure how many) than cause her any stress. I will keep you updated on any progress. I hope to re-vist around the 13th June.
A trip out after work…
Dominic and I headed out to Chilgrove to one of my favourite boxes at 18.30 after I finished work for the day. I had high hopes that this box would have owls as I found some here last year. The hinges on the box had rusted on and I could not open the hatch last year, so I knew we needed to do some maintenance.
While I emptied out the box (it was full of shredded owl pellets almost up to the hole), Dominic put on some new hinges.
Dominic mending a barn owl box door.
I also wanted to try out he “stopper” my step dad had made for me which you can see in the photos below. This is used to stop any owls or owlets jumping out of the box when we put the ladder up to inspect the contents of the box.
Glorious view out over the Chilgrove countryside.
Living the High Life at Goodwood…
Russell and I met outside the Forestry Office on The Goodwood Estate at 6am to starton the highest boxes on the estate with the help of the trusty landrover cherry picker conversion. This amazing piece of machinery expertly handled by Russell can lift us up into the canopy of the tallest trees on the Estate.
It was 18 degrees already when we set out and by the time we finished at 11.15am it was already in the high 20’s. On eof the advantages of the cherry picker is that birds can be ringed in the “cage” which makes the process very slick.
The majority of the boxes we checked today are impssible to access even with triple ladders.
Last year Sophia (Goodwood Sustainability Officer) purchased some recycled tyre boxes and these have been placed around the Estate. Today we found our first breeding Tawny Owl with a newly hatched owlet and an egg near the Goodwood Art Foundation. We quickly retreated and left her in peace and hope to revisit the nest in a couple of weeks to ring her owlets.
Tawny Owl with owlet and an egg
In the beautiful Rewilding Area we checked 3 boxes , one in need of repair, an empty kestrel box but in a fabulous Oak Tree we found this young family. Three out of four owlets were ringed but the smallest one was too tiny to ring. We hope to see them quartering and spreading their wings in the future.
Family of owlets in a nest box
A particularly productive box in a Walnut Tree, which yielded 7 young in 2024 seemed very quiet when we took the cherry picker almost to its limit. I put a stopper in the entrance hole and didn’t hold much hope for any owls. I put my camera into the entrance hole to see if there was anything going on and I caught sight of two very relaxed adult owls with their impressive clutch of 6 eggs. We quietly backed away and plan to revisit the box in the near future.
Barn Owls with eggs.
I retreated back to my NHS work at 11.30am with a promise to return to check some more boxes which are new for the Estate and to revisit in the next few weeks to do further nest monitoring.
Thanks to Darren, Russell and all the Forestry Team for their hard work and continued committment to the Owls.
On tour with The Sussex Peregrine Study Group…………
Ben and I met up with Graham Roberts and John Frankllin from The Sussex Peregrine Study Group to go up ontop of Chichester Cathedral to ring the two eyasses who are growing at a rate of knots and being very well tended to by their attentive parents. This was my third visit and Ben’s first. I last came up back in 2018 a few months before I fell down the stairs fracturing my ankle in 3 places!
Graham, me and John in 2018
After the long hot climb inside the cathedral roof it was lovely to get out into the sunshine. We could see David Shaw (https://www.chichesterperegrines.co.uk/) and his colleagues below us watching from near the Cloisters. The Cathedral has streamed the birds for more than two decades, and this year carries added significance: 2026 marks the 25th anniversary since peregrines were first regularly observed on the Cathedral. The pair has become a defining feature of the site, with more than 70–80 chicks fledged since the early 2000s Chichester Peregrines, 2026).
Above us the tiercel and the falcon were creating quite a din as Graham donned his hard hat and harness to climb into the turrett where the nest box sits.
Ben ringed both the peregrine chicks with the silver BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) rings and Graham put on the colour rings which you can see on both the eyasses below.
AV (photo courtesy of Ben Ayling)
AT (my photo)
Both of the eyasses were male this year, much to David Shaw’s surprise! We look forward to watching their adventures as they grow and fledge in the weeks to come.
Do go and see David and his team at the Cathedral are hosting drop‑in Peregrine Open Days on Cathedral Green. In 2026 these will run Wednesday to Sunday, 6 June to 5 July, offering visitors the opportunity to watch the birds through telescopes, view live footage onsite, and speak with volunteers who have supported the project for many years.
David Shaw has also written : The Falcon with a Broken Heart..... New Book...!!
A gentle, true story of resilience, healing, and finding home.
Maverick the peregrine falcon has faced hardship, recovery, and a long journey to belonging. Through searching skies and changing places, he discovers that sometimes the place you are meant to be has been waiting for you all along.
All proceeds from this book are shared between the British Heart Foundation and the Chichester Peregrine Project.
So it’s taken three years but what started in Royal Sussex Hospital has now been published by David Shaw Publishing…completely a labour of love …!!! I was determined to publish for the 25th Anniversary!!!
The official Launch of the book will be the 6th and 7th June which coincides with the first two days of the open days on the lawns at Chichester Cathedral.
#chichesterperegrines
A new box in Yapton……….
Ben (my trainee) and I met Richard (landowner) to check out an owl box tucked up in the roof of a beautiful remote barn in Yapton. This is a new box for me, but one that Ben monitors regularly and owls have been seen bringin in food to the barn.
Remote Barn
As we approached the barn and Richard put the key in the lock, 2 adult barn owls flew in opposite directions into the trees at the field edges. Richard’s granddaughter joined us and as we crept into the barn, eagle eyed Ben spotted an owlet on the floor underneath the box. There were another 3 owls in the box and Ben brought them down to be ringed. They were all healthy including the one from the floor of the barn.
Barn Owlet
This seemed a very early brood, so I wonder if these owls will have another brood later in the summer to try to make up for last years appalling breeding season. Watch this space !!
Healthy brood of 4 owlets
An urgent visit to Slindon
Warren Barn, Slindon NT
Katie contacted me recently explaining that one of the barns at Slindon NT (Warren Barn) was unsafe and the roof was being propped up and they needed to get in to close up the barn owl box before urgent renovations started to removed the roof and repair the damage caused by the death watch beetle.
Unfortunatley, with all the terrible rain and subsequent flooding there had not been a good day to do this until today.
This barn owl box is high up in the roof of the barn, historically it has had owls breeding and Katie’s team had already put up an alternative box on a tree nearby the barn in mitigation ready for the barn owls upcoming breeding season. They plan to install another in a tree just further along from the one they put up today.
New Barn Owl box in tree behind the barn.
The existing box is too high for any of my nets, so we crept into the barn and put the long ladders up. It wasn’t until I was 2/3rds of the way up the ladder that a male barn owl flew out silently over our heads.
What a beautiful sight it was to see as he headed out and over the fields. Hopefully he will find the new box and use this to roost in, though there are 5 other boxes on the estate he could utilise. I cleaned out the box and Katie sealed up the entrance.
This can be re-opened once the work on the barn has been completed.
New box in situ.
Rehabillitated Gulls……
You may recall from the summer that I joined up to a national project which is ringing orhaned and abandoned Gulls to look at Gull survival and dispersal following rehabillitation at Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital in Sidlesham and the British Trust for Ornithology.
Well, we have had some more reports of two gulls one has moved just up the coast to a lovely park in Brighton. This is NZA - a first winter herring gull who was an orphaned chick. Hopefully the video below will be accessible.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/182M98ovyk/
THEN!! We had a fantastic report of NZJ also an abandoned chick brought in my a member of the public. Another first winter Herring Gull (and a very handsome one too!!) who rocked up in BELGIUM.
Mark Grantham at the BTO Headquaters tells me this is only the second ever West Sussex ringed Gull to be reported in Belgium. How amazing!!!
It was spotted by Francis Kerchof a Marine Biologist based in Oostende. His wonderful photo is below along with a map showing the movement.
NZJ found by Francis Kerchof - photo credit.
Winter Clearing
I met with Sarah and Justin at noon at The Slindon Estate Yard before the winds picked up and the rain came in and we managed to get to five of their Barn Owl boxes to clear them out ready for 2026.
One of the boxes had been full to above the top of the entrance hatch (see 16th June 2025).
It had 2 stock dove eggs perched on top of the leaves when i peered inthe entrance hole in June so we had left them to hatch.
Today, I managed to clear it all out and left a lovely base of shredded pellets on the floor of the box. Hopefully there will be more room now to allow a pair of owls to move in.
Barn Owl box cleared out today
The box below on the edge of a woodland area had a fabulous nest above the entrance hole - maybe a wasp or a hornet?
Wasp or Hornet nest
Owlets …..at last
Dominic and I headed to Sidlesham to re visit an owl box which had kestrels breeding in it (see journal 17th June). We found 4 warm kestrel eggs on our last visit but had no idea when they were laid. I had planned to come back 10 days ago but due to unexpected circumstances I was unable to check the box until today.
We were lucky to find one remaining young kestrel with an item of prey in the box along side it. The other kestrels appear to have successfully fledged.
Young Kestrel - photo by Dominic.
Common Shrew
The next box was a barn owl box in a huge oak tree that we had been unable to check last time due to a large congregation of cows and 2 bulls under the box. Today, to our complete surprise an adult barn owl flew out of the box as we drove up. Dominic clambered up the ladder and even more of a surprise were 3 young owlets. I retrieved the youngsters and each was ringed and their wings measured and weight recorded.
Owlets- Estimated to be 30, 32 and 35 days old.
From here we made our way to Pagham to see how a barn owl box with 2 tiny barn owls chicks in it 4 weeks ago was coming on. When I opened the box up I was so surprised to see a stock dove (adult) in the left hand corner that I completely failed to hold onto it for ringing. In the back right corner were two healthy looking owlets ! The stock dove had made a cup nest in the front left corner but has not yet laid any eggs.
This pair of owlets were 37 and 42 days old.
Owlets photo taken by Dominic
I will keep you updated on these boxes, I will be returning in the autumn to check these owls have fledged and to clear out the boxes ready for next years breeding season.
Leconfield revisit…….
I met with Andrew and his daughter Milly to revisit 2 owl boxes at The Leconfield Estate. One box in a barn had 2 warm eggs in it on the last visit on the 11th June. We saw 2 adult barn owls fly out of the barn again as we approached it today and found evidence of primary moult on the floor of the barn as we entered. This did not bode well for owlets.
The box contained a crushed owl egg and a cold owl egg and at the far end of the box in a dip in the shredded pellets were what appeared to be warm Stock Dove eggs.
We retreated quickly to allow the adults to come back into their roost site.
Andrew was hopeful that another box might have owls in it, so we headed across the estate to a box cloe to where he had seen an unringed male barn owl reguarly in the past 2 weeks. This box had had a well developed Stock Dove in it on the last visit.
We put up the ladder and found that the previous stock dove chick had fledged and there were another 2 Stock Dove chicks in the nest. We ringed the two small chicks and as the chicks were returned to the nest we noticed some owl feathers towards the back of the nest. Unfortunately this was a dead nestling from the previous year wearing ring number GY84610.
Pair of stock dove chicks (IP)- photo by Milly Thompson
Sadly deceased Barn Owl (ring removed)
We headed back to Andrews house to discuss the potential of mist netting on the estate and in Andrew’s garden (over a cup of tea).
This really is the worst year I have experienced since starting Barn Owl ringing in 2010 with Barrie. The university of Sussex are looking into what might be causing this sudden drop off in breeding.
Details can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx204gjx8xdo?at_format=link&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_id=15690730-62FA-11F0-AA0A-E61366C63AD3&at_medium=social&at_campaign_type=owned&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_origin=BBC_Sussex&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_type=web_link&fbclid=IwY2xjawLmMRpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHua2jEsV__h8v2OFgLiOHjy7e0iEkylPNr0DDTCS1ZleiUdiN9F_MxUChrvm_aem_Ue0cdIgwOSlsetfvv_JmFg
National Rehabillitated Gull Project
Mike Bailey and I met again at Brent Lodge to metal and colour ring some soon to be released juvenile Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus). All the birds today have been brought in by members of the public and have been orphaned or fallen from their nests or their nests destroyed.
Herring Gulls are a species of conservation concern, listed as Red-listed due to significant population declines. Herring Gull populations have declined considerably, especially along the coast, with a more than 50% decrease noted between the 1969-70 census and the Seabird 2000 survey (1998-2002).
The Herring Gull feeds mainly on marine vertebrates and invertebrates, with Green Shore Crab being a particular favourite. It is an opportunist, however, and will eat a wide variety of food and can be found feeding in large congregations at refuse dumps, taking advantage of the food we throw away.
Typical life expectancy of bird reaching breeding age is 12 years with breeding typically at 4 years.
These birds have been colour ringed as part of a National Project run by the BTO and the British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council. Birds included in the project are orphaned and rehabilitated Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls released by accredited rehabilitation centres.
The colour rings are yellow writing on a blue background. All rings have a 3 letter code (see below).
We would be delighted if anyone seeing these rings could report them here: https://app.bto.org/euring/lang/pages/rings.jsp
Young Herring Gulls
Colour ringed Herring Gulls