A blog to share barn owl and other wildlife and general news about the Retreat and its environment.
Stock dove investigating the barn owl box
15. March 2026, Wildlife
In the Spring, it is not only barn owls who are looking for large cavities which they can use for nesting.
Stock doves can also use such spaces, and it is not unusual for stock doves to take over barn owl nest boxes. It happened here in 2022 and each year the doves visit the box repeatedly with a view to taking it for nesting.
Even when the box is occupied by a roosting owl the doves are not scared off. They will perch on the entrance peering into the box, and on occasion they have entered the box even when there is an owl there. If the box is unoccupied when they they may enter to explore, with the risk that they may start nesting and deter the owls.
A stock dove attacks a barn owl roosting in the nest box
04. March 2025, Wildlife
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.
Read the rest of the article: A stock dove attacks a barn owl roosting in the nest box
Kestrel swoops on stock dove, twice in a few seconds
11. July 2022, Wildlife
In 2022 stock doves took over our barn owl nest box, displacing our barn owls who were visiting the box but had not taken up residence for breeding.
A kestrel noticed the doves coming and going. One one video (three days after this one) we filmed a kestrel taking up position ready to swoop on the dove, and the dove diving under the box instead of entering it.
This video shows a female kestrel swooping down, claws out, trying to grab the dove, but the dove took sharp evasive action. The kestrel looped around and made another swoop four seconds later.
Six days later we found a wing of a dove, on the ground about ten feet from the nest box, surrounded by lots of feathers. It seems that the kestrel was persistent and succeeded. There had been two dove eggs in the box, one of which had just hatched, but the hatchling had died by the time we discovered the situation.
Read the rest of the article: Kestrel swoops on stock dove, twice in a few seconds
Barn owls try to recover their nestbox from stock doves
27. June 2022, Wildlife
In 2022 our barn owl nest box was taken over by a pair of stock doves when the owls didn't visit the box for a few days. One smallish barn owl had been roosting there during daytimes pretty regularly, and wanted to continue doing so. By now the stock doves had two eggs.
One dove was sitting on the eggs when suddenly a large barn owl crashed into the box, seemingly summoned by the smaller owl, and smothered the dove briefly. Yet the barn owl did not seem to aim to harm the dove, and then flew away.
The doves did not succeed in raising their young - see video 'kestrel swoops on stock dove'. Neither did the owls breed here that year though they did in 2023.
Read the rest of the article: Barn owls try to recover their nestbox from stock doves
