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

Installed today, we now have a tawny owl nestbox hanging on a rowan tree.

As recommended it is facing east to avoid the prevailing SW wind and rain. The location is 80m north of the barn owl nestbox, which is on the rear-left of the house seen peeking over the horizon to the right of the rowan tree.

The design and dimensions of the are based on guides from the Barn Owl Trust and BTO.

This is installed too late for the current nesting season, but it will be available for the tawnies to notice it in the Autumn, when they are scouting potential nesting sites ready for early next year.

This year our barn owl pair have six eggs, laid approximately every two days between 30th March and 12th April.

Laying to hatching interval is around 29-32 days, so the first hatchling is likely to appear within the next few days. Keep an eye on the owlcam to see if you can be first to spot it.

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A tawny brings its mouse prey to our barn owl nest box and perches with it on the ‘branch’ (a piece of timber installed to hold a camera but which is also popular with the owls as perching branch)

Our barn owlets have all dispersed and so the nest box is currently unoccupied. The tawny owl did not attempt to enter the box and flew away after about 30 seconds, but not before making a close up inspection of the camera on the “branch”.

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.

The barn owls won the tussle with stock doves and others to occupy the nest box. A pair moved in a week ago and seem settled in for the season.

You can monitor them on our live cams.

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 (the second photo shows the female).

The expected behaviour is that the female will hardly leave the box at all, or even not at all, for the next two 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.

We have live streaming camera feeds from our barn owl nest box.

The owl activity varies by season.

Currently we have one barn owl roosting most daytimes from approximately 5-8 a.m. until 4-8 p.m. During her residence you will see her on the camera feed inside the nest box. You may catch her perching on the ledge outside the box when she arrives in the early morning and/or when she exists the box late afternoon/dusk.

If they use the box for breeding then it will be permanently occupied by the female for about three months during which time the male is in charge of hunting and providing.

The camera feeds are on our live owl cam page.

There's a lot of interest in this barn owl nest box. This evening, for the first time, we have seen a tawny owl inside the barn owl nest box, and its mate looked in too.

The video is best viewed with sound turned on.

Stock doves nested in our barn owl nest box (thereby excluding the owls) in 2022. Last year and again this year they are persistent in visiting the box hoping to find it empty.

We have a barn owl which roosts here most days (though occasionally misses a day). Today the doves came again, and entered the box to attack her.

The roosting barn owl promptly settled into defensive posture, back towards the corner of the box (for support?), standing on one leg leaving the other leg free to strike out with its long sharp claws.

In the full speed video it happens too quickly for you to see the leg strike, but keep watching and it is repeated in slow motion.

Our first recording of a tawny owl.

We often hear tawny owls hooting, particularly over the last 18 months, but this is the first time we have caught one on camera at our barn owl nest box.

Our barn owl box is designed to suit barn owls, but other birds also show interest in it.

It snowed last night and the barn owl nest box was covered deep snow.

Fortunately no owls were trapped inside as the box was not inhabited last night.

A wren visited and perched on the mound of snow.