Barn Owls and Spitfires
A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of joining Darren Norris (Head of Forestry) and his wonderful wife Sarah at a location near the Goodwood Estate in West Sussex.
We were making a 3rd visit to a nest site in a beautiful sheep shearing barn.
Historically this barn has been very successful BUT it had been 5 years since I last monitored this nest.
Our first visit to this nest was on 22nd june 2024- we saw a female fly fromt he nest as we approached and on climbing a relatively short ladder and squeezed through the beams in the roof I found 3 eggs and a cache of 6 rodents. The eggs were warm and I scuttled down the ladder and we left quickly to allow the female to return and continue brooding the eggs.
Darren and I returned on the 16th July with Sophia Llewelyn (Estate Project Manager- Sustainabilty) again (as expected) an adult flew from the box and on repeating the the ladder climb and beam squeeze I was discombobulated to find 7 eggs…..
As I was coming down the ladder Sophia called out to say she had found a ring. She was clutching the dried out leg of an owl with a ring on it. Even more befuddled I entered the details of the ring into the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) database and waited patiently for the recovery details to come through.
On the 23rd July I recieved an email from the BTO which gave me the details of the recovered ring- the owl (a male) had been ringed by my mentor Barrie Watson in 2012 at Slindon (9km away). The oldest wild barn owl recorded by the BTO was 15 years, 3 months and 21 days (set in 2016). But what a recovery. I am not sure how long that lega nd ring had been there, but had it been there on previous visits we would have noticed it.
I wonder if shortly after egg laying the male of the pair had died (maybe old age ?) and the clutch had failed which might account for the female breeding again with a new mate and laying another 4 eggs.
We will never know, but happily when Darren, Sarah and I returned we found 3 beautiful and healthy looking owlets. They were ringed and aged, then returned to the box so the adults could come in to feed.
A later than expected brood, but as their first clutch failed for whatever reason, they did well to hatch and feed 3 owlets.
Maybe one day we will find out which adults are inhabiting this box.
Initial visit 22nd June
7 eggs found on 16th July (2nd visit)
3 healthy barn owl chicks on 14th August (third visit)