Peak District Retreat Blog

The four barn owlets seems to be thriving and active.

These barn owlets now range in age from 4 weeks down to 19 days. They are beginning to replace their down with feathers. e.g. look at the video at about 12 seconds in.

The fourth and youngest is not so visible early in the video - it tends to keep underneath its siblings, perhaps for warmth as it is still not fully covered in down. Later in the video it is away from the others and easier to see.

All four eggs hatched, and all four owlets are being fed by the parents. They have all turned white and fluffy, having been naked and pink initially.

The male barn owl is still not very reliable at hunting for them, occasionally not turning up at all and some nights only bringing 2-3 voles (and other nights bringing 10 or more).

The female sometimes also goes out hunting at dusk and/or at dawn, but that is higher risk because in daylight predators may attack either her or the owlets in the box. Again this morning she was chased back to the box by a magpie trying to steal her prey.

The second photo of her with prey was from 06:22 yesterday.

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.

Earlier this evening a second barn owl egg has hatched.

The third hatching is due in 3-5 days.

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!

2023 has been a successful year for our barn owls.

The pair settled into the box earlier in the year. Four eggs were laid, four eggs all hatched, and four owlets all grew and fledged. They are pictured here just after the youngest of them finally grew strong enough to fly up from the bottom of the deep nest box to get out of the entrance hole.

This success is despite the male seemingly not being a very diligent provider and rarely bringing prey for the young, with the burden of the feeding falling on the female.