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 owl 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 owls move into the nest box
The barn owls won the tussle to occupy the next box. A pair moved in a week ago and seem settled in for the season.
You can monitor them on our livecams.
The one that looks a little paler over the head and back is the male (to the right on the attached photo), and the slightly darker one (to the left) is the female. It is difficult to distinguish them if you see them alone and don't have the other with which to compare. If you get a good view on the outside camera in daylight you may be able to distinguish a couple of dozen small black spots on the white feathers on the flanks of one of them (though they may be hidden by the folded wings). This is the female, the male not having any such spots (see second photo).
The expected behaviour is that the female will hardly leave the box at all, or even not at all, for the next three months, so you will almost always see at least one owl when you look at the in-box camera. The male is supposed to do all the hunting, bringing food to her, and to her and the young once they hatch. Once the young are about four weeks old and getting larger and needing more food the female starts hunting as well.
But our experience from previous years is that the male doesn't always fulfil his role diligently! When we had a breeding pair two years ago (possibly the same pair) the male was not very supportive and the female went out hunting from time to time even when sitting on eggs and nursing new hatchlings.
The general timeline is to expect eggs to start appearing over the next week or so, incubating for about four weeks before they hatch, and the owlets remaining in the box for about 8 weeks from hatching. The box is deep so that the owlets can't get out until they are strong enough to fly and survive outside.
Unlike most other birds, barn owls start incubating the eggs as soon as they are laid, so they will hatch separately at intervals that depend on the laying intervals. Eggs may appear at intervals of a day or so, or up to 5-6 days apart.
The photo shows the two owls ‘nuzzling’, a courtship activity.
