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

The fourth barn owl egg has hatched this morning.

The image attached from 10:42 shows half the shell discarded to the top-left of the female's head, with the owlet still sitting in the other half of the shell! (just below the female's head).

The male owl has not been resident in the box, but visits each night and brings voles to the female. On one or two nights his haul was a bit meagre, but most nights he is bringing enough to feed the female, and also to leave her some more which she tears up to feed to the small owlets.

Over the next few weeks they will grow quite rapidly and surprisingly soon they will be fed whole voles. By about four weeks they usually need larger supplies and the female starts going out to hunt as well.

The mother tries to brood them and keep them warm. She sits with her wings spread a little wider to cover them. As there are now four of them to contain, and those four will grow quite quickly, it is an impossible task and you will more and more often see escapees spilling out from under her, or popping up between her trunk and wings. Watch them on the live camera.

We wouldn't expect the owlets to leave the box until about 56 days after hatching. That is how long it takes for them to grow big enough to be able to fly up to the box entrance/exit, which is deliberately high up so that once they leave the box they can fly back to it instead of being stranded on the ground. (Unlike tawny owls, barn owl parents will ignore and not feed any young on the ground, so they would perish from starvation or predators if they are not strong enough to fly back to the box).

The third egg has hatched this evening.

Not a very clear picture, but there are three hatchlings and one egg.

One more egg to hatch, due in the next 3-5 days.

It's warm dry weather. The red deer have visited this stream in this position a few times in the last couple of weeks.

Earlier this evening a second barn owl egg has hatched.

The third hatching is due in 3-5 days.

The male seems to have upped his game the last couple of days, and following the first hatching he has been bringing more prey to the nest box each night.

The female should not need to leave the box for hunting, which is important so that she can guard the eggs and young against intruders. (The stock doves have already visited again this morning, hoping to be able to take over the box for their nest).

She has been well fed overnight, and she still has at least five more voles lying on the floor of the box which she can eat herself and tear up to feed to the hatchling.

Not yet 48 hours since hatching, the young barn owlet (the pink blob next to the remaining eggs) is clearly growing and moving - a good sign.

The first of our four barn owl eggs hatched about an hour before this photo was taken. It was right on time, having been laid 30 days ago, and the average hatching time being after 30-32 days incubation.

The hatchling is the pink blob under the owl, next to the eggs.

The male barn owl has not been pulling his weight when it comes to hunting and bringing prey to the box. Let's hope he ups his game now that he is a father!

The barn owl nest box continues to attract attention from other birds, even though it is permanently inhabited by a barn owl sitting on four eggs (first hatching due tomorrow).

Here we had a bit of a face-off between a magpie and a stock dove. Then later two swallows showed interest, with one perching on the entrance hole to peer in.

Our male barn owl has been something of an absentee mate. He rarely spends the night in the nest box, and isn't very good at bringing prey to feed the brooding female.

One evening it appeared as though she 'snapped' and stormed out to fetch him back! She must have known where to find him (there aren't many pubs near us...) as she was only gone for 3-4 minutes and then chased him back.

She appeared to shepherd him back into the box, whereupon he started screeching and stamping as if to say “I don't want to be here! I'm not supposed to be here!”

It didn't cure him - he has continued to be absent most of the time, though usually visits overnight and brings a few voles.

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/6gMdgtIHnl8 

Both barn owls left the box briefly to perch on the ledge, with the female to the left and the male to the right.

Inside the box there are four eggs. This may be the full clutch, or their may be more to come - in a previous year there was a 5-day gap between the laying of the penultimate egg and the last egg.

The female barn owl steps aside for a stretch and reveals that she has laid a fourth egg. Is that it, or might there be more to come?

We now have three eggs in the barn owl nest box.

There may yet be more to come, though the male owl is not doing a good job of bringing food to the female and that may inhibit further egg production.

In 2023 there were four eggs, and in 2020 there were six.

A second egg has been laid by our resident barn owl.

There are likely to be more laid over the next few days - watch this space.

This pale buzzard has been seen here a few times, perching on a fence post on our boundary.

It has strikingly white features compared to the usual buzzard plumage.

Pale morph buzzards seem to be a variant that varies across the country, being more common in SW England than around here.

The first barn owl egg has been laid.

A typical clutch is 4-7 eggs. Look out for the next arrival over the next day or two…