AN UPDATE ON THE BARN OWLS AND AN UNSUCCESSFUL VISIT TO  EYEBROOK RESERVOIR

Having been out monitoring the Barn Owls every evening  when its not been raining, we are getting at last a picture as to what is occuring. I have also had the CCTV cameras on in both boxes and our Barn Owl population is as follows. In the smaller box we have a male, and in the large box we have a pair.  The male is roosting on top of the internal entrance baffle and the female is on the floor at the far end of the box. The  turn of events is as follows, the female is the first to leave the box  and returns relatively quickly with a mouse and enters into the box, after about ten minutes the male leaves and normally return within a matter of a few minutes  with a mouse and enters the box, he stays in the box for about ten minutes and then goes away on another hunting trip, the interloper male I have seen I estimate six times, he leaves his box and goes directly to the large box and enters, he stays for about five minutes before emerging  and flying away, I have never seen him return  for a second visit but how long must I stay out??. I was talking with my birding pal Rhys yesterday and we are both of the same opinion, the interloper male is disturbing the female, normally a female would allow the male to feed her, his job is to get her into breeding condition to produce eggs, she should not need to go out and hunt for herself, the male is doing everything he should be, we obviously have a good supply of food how quickly he returns when out hunting, which is another marker if they are going to breed , the female should not be hunting, somehow the equilibrium of the pair has been disturbed, but what can we do. My schedule 1 licence allows for the monitoring and ringing of Barn Owls, I can not go and disturb the interloper male, I have just got to let nature take its course, its far wiser in these matters than me, and at least the interloper has a good dry and warm box in all this awful weather we have been experiencing lately. 

Our Box set up.

Male Barn Owl, Large box.

First sighting of him this evening. 21.15 hrs.

A quick look about to see the coast is clear. 

Then out onto the front but facing the smaller box. 

Then a quick about turn and I thought he was away hunting. 

But we stood a little longer taking in the evening air and views .

Another quick look about.

And back into the box for about ten minutes. 

Then he r e emerges. 21.35 hrs

Walks to the end of the front and up onto his favourite post.

He ponders the nights work ahead of him.

Stands on one leg and looks about. 

Watches a Pigeon fly past.

Then has a little snooze before going hunting 21.55 hrs.

I then notice movement on the front of the smaller box as the interloper emerges. 

Flies across and enters the large box and stays inside for about five minutes before coming out ang going away hunting. 

Female Barn Owl.

 her flying in from my left and land on the front of the small box with a mouse, she then flew to the large box and went in.

The female again on anther evening the only good thing is with her being about earlier, no high ISO.
The female is not heavily flecked as the male and ha a paler look her, she is also larger than the male.

Entering the large box at speed with her mouse.

ANOTHER VISIT TO EYEBROOK RESERVOIR.

My visit was again more for the Osprey but he did not appear for me, he apparently had several fishing trips in the morning but whilst I was about he didn't show, as hard as I look I cannot  as yet find his roosting tree, this male is not like the Manton Bay  male{33{11}, he is very involved with both incubating and the feeding, 03 just turns up and drops the fish and is then away and leaves the female to get on with it.  For the last  two years he has spent most of his time in a dead tree on the far side of the reservoir, this year he could be staying closer  to the nest site. So with no Osprey images I have got some from previous years and pit them on this blog, more for my satisfaction, hopefully I eill get to see him soon.

CommonTern Raft .

This week with the wind direction having changed, the adults were feeding on the far side of the water so no reasonable images possible.

Cormorant,

This bird was flying towards the Dam on the far side of th water, some 400 metres away.

Mute Swans with cygnets.
I have never seen before a female with a cygnet having a lazy ride. several times with Great Crested Grebes with all the young on the back. 

Mute Swan with Cygnets.
This female with larger young I saw on my previous visit, doesn't appear to have one having a piggy back. 

Black Headed Gull,

These birds were feeding closer where the Terns were feeding previously.

Buzzard.
Took this image out the car window having to hand hold this very heavy lens. 

 Osprey 03/09, Male from site O.

These are some unused images from last year Just for me to look at.

You can just read his rblue ring, his missing wing feather is due to the fact Osprey have a continuous molt, it is never a good time for them to molt due to the migration.

Thank you for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as i did in the getting of the images.