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

The female barn owl stepped aside for a stretch a few times today, allowing us a better view of the four barn owlets.

On the video (on youTube) you can see the wriggling of the pink blobby owlets.

Besides the two eggs yet to hatch you can also see some egg-shell fragments which are from yesterday's hatching.

Canada geese have returned this year to nest in precisely the same location as last year, on the bank of one of our ponds and near to our Green Tara statue.

The wider angle photo shows the general area of the pond. The zoomed in crop show the gander patrolling in the pond, with the female goose sitting on the nest on the far bank of the pond.

The gander is quite fierce so it is not possible to see how many eggs are in the nest. Just after the photo above was taken the gander rushed towards the female to chase away a crow that had landed nearby and was walking towards the nest, perhaps to steal eggs.

Three pairs of geese arrived several weeks ago. Initially they appeared to socialise but only this pair seemed to settle and nest. Thereafter, especially once the female started brooding the eggs, the presence of the others was not tolerated and the gander threatened and chased them. Even when they were 100m away they were chased, and we haven't seen them at all the last few days.

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 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.

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…