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

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.

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…