Peak District Retreat Blog: Wildlife and general news about the Retreat and its environment

We thought we had lost one of the owlets, but today we got a clear view of them and clearly all six are still there :)

How did we make that mistake?

The owlets have always been difficult to identify individually and to count, because they keep bunched together and the female keeps them covered to keep them warm.

A few days ago the female pulled out from under her the light grey object you see just below and near her head in these photos. It doesn't look anything like any of the other litter in the nestbox. We read it as an owlet corpse, shrivelled up and dried out. Looking again now, it does appear to have a tail in the first photo so perhaps it is a vole corpse which for some reason looks different to usual.