Owl news

                    A work colleague once described me as "dogged", which I have always thought of as a bit of a compliment. Yes, some things I do stick at with a certain persistence. A case in point is my determination to make sure the Tawny Owls in the wood can nest again in the nest box I made and put up for them. It has meant engaging in a battle with numerous squirrels to keep them out of the box, clearing out their debris several times over the winter months and maintaining a distant vigilance.  My key weapon in this turned out to be peppermint essence, sprayed liberally around the box as a small experiment in vermin control. Owls have little sense of smell and I had read that squirrels have very sensitive noses.........and so it turned out. It worked. For their part the owls have proved to be just as dogged. They started investigating the box in November last year, put up with the persistent attacks of pesky squirrels, endured the unseasonal snows and Arctic winds of late February (I caught them visiting the box with snow on its roof, via a remote camera) and the visitations of an anxious woodland owner. 

                Several days ago, unsure if the owls had actually produced a family, I rigged my smartphone on to a long pole and used it to peer into the box. I had to wait until I was pretty certain any eggs had hatched as Tawnies are known to desert a nest very readily if disturbed while still incubating. Females can also be very aggressive at this time and will attack if feeling threatened. So, the investigation was completed with a little trepidation. It went well, thankfully, and to my great delight showed three owl chicks in the nest with the parents nowhere in sight. By chance, a week or so later I heard a Blackbird making the kind of racket that suggests a predator is nearby and there in one of the pines near the nest was an adult owl. We exchanged brief glances. And today as I crept up to the box to see what, if anything, was going on, a well-feathered owlet gave me a brief look-over before ducking back inside. With luck all three young owls will leave the nest over the next few days doing what is known as "branching". Too young to be able to fly they will crawl and climb up into surrounding trees and complete their development out in the open, with the parents continuing to feed them for weeks to come.

              Elsewhere, most of the nest boxes are now being used to raise new families, the first Slow Worms are in evidence and a pair of Turtle Doves have returned to the wood. For the third year I am part of an RSPB project to provide supplementary feed for this now uncommon species. Seeing these two birds feeding on the special seed I have been scattering gives me hope that they too are choosing to nest nearby.

Inside the owl box via my smartphone

One of the owl chicks returning my gaze, this one looks ready to branch

Turtle Doves finding the special feed put down for them

Blue Tits nesting in one of the boxes

A very young Slow Worm under one of the tins, this one was just 8cm long