Peak District Retreat Blog
A blog to share some items of interest about the Retreat and its environment - wildlife or other nature notes and images, or maybe something else. Our barn own nest box has three cameras so barn owls will certainly feature in our blog, but so will other birds and other wildlife.
We do not commit to regular updates, rather we intend to post items of particular interest when they arise. We do have quite a back catalogue of past images which we may post to ‘back-fill’ the blog, while generally keeping the entries in chronological order.
Barn owl nesting 2024
During 2024 there was no owl breeding in our nestbox.
During the winter 2023/24 one owl (female we think) roosted in the box every single daytime for over 6 months, leaving at dusk to go hunting and returning around dawn. During that time we didn't see a second owl.
We might have expected to see them together as a pair from around Jan/Feb but still we saw a second owl on only a couple of occasions, and the female was roosting here less regularly, not being seen at all from May onwards for two to three months.
Perhaps the pair nested somewhere else this year. We saw more of them July/August, with some courting behaviour (see photos) but no nesting or breeding.
