Len Pick Trust Owl Project

The surviving chick is seven weeks old today.

Soon it will disappear into the entrance tunnel for long periods but will return to the box at feeding time.

Things have improved a lot this week as the harvest is finally underway and mice are abundant.

In fact there has been surplus prey this past few days so the adult female has been able to take things a bit easier after a difficult time in July.

Young rats are common amongst the prey items. The lack of voles this year has meant the adult owls have had to look for other rodent species.

Surprisingly, the adult male has turned up again! He hasn’t been seen for a few weeks but now he pops into the box most nights, sometimes with prey, but mostly to bond with the female.

Following on from our previous post, we are pleased to report that the harvest has really commenced over the last couple of days, notwithstanding the intermittent showers and rainstorms.

As predicted, the combine has driven out the mice and voles and keen followers of the Video feed will have noticed, as a consequence, that the chick has had adequate prey delivered. Indeed, yesterday afternoon the mother was spotted resting in the box after delivering prey for the chick overnight.

Obviously, the fate of the chick depends on so many factors and so we hope for continuing dry weather so that the mother can continue her hunting. Rain is the enemy as Owls cannot fly with wet plumage.

Poor weather conditions during summer have led to big challenges for our nesting owls. We understand that for some of our viewers, it can be concerning to see the chicks alone in the owl tower for prolonged periods of time, and so in this blog update, our resident owl expert explains what has been going on. 

Prey is very scarce this year for Lincolnshire’s barn owls. It is the worst year in living memory and this is borne out by what is happening at the Len Pick Trust nest.

Only two chicks hatched and the youngest died earlier this month. The adult male has disappeared and so the female is doing all the hunting, but she visits every night, usually when most webcam viewers are asleep so it’s easy to assume she has disappeared.

Last night she fed the chick at midnight, but whether the owlet can survive on a reduced diet is unsure.

The wet weather conditions have led to a poor harvest for Lincolnshire’s farmers – and remarkably, this affects our owl chick’s chances of survival. When combine harvesters are in the fields, this drives mice and voles out of the ground and makes them easier for the owls to catch, providing food to feed their chicks. If the combines can get out soon then there will be plenty of mice available, but that of course is weather dependant.

The camera is monitored regularly by our owl experts, and it has always been the Len Pick Trust’s policy never to interfere with nature whatever the circumstances, and we hope that our owl towers provide a safe home for nesting owls. These are wild birds, and will have good and bad years depending on prey availability.

Last night our smallest chick died.
This was not unexpected as reports are coming in from all over the county of brood depletion due to the weather conditions and lack of prey.
Barn owls struggle to hunt in the high winds such as we witnessed last weekend. Rain is also their enemy so put the two together and it is unsurprising we have the perfect storm.
The harvest is underway so we may get a glut of mice to help the eldest chick survive if the weather improves.

The two barn owl chicks are growing fast.
Food is still scarce as there aren’t many voles around.
The male is seen less and less, suggesting he may have another female nesting nearby.
Our hen bird is out hunting for long periods every night .
The unhatched eggs are scattered now.

It is now eleven days since the second chick hatched so we must assume the remaining two barn owl eggs won’t hatch.

As for the “rogue” stock dove egg it is anyone’s guess what will happen, but the odds are stacked against it.

There is also a possibility the male owl isn’t bringing in enough prey. On Monday he visited the nest with a mouse at 11pm and wasn’t seen again that night. The female eventually left the chicks unguarded for two spells, eventually catching a mouse herself.

It is very rare in the barn owl world for mum to leave tiny young, especially as she left them at one point for an hour and four minutes!

So we continue to watch with bated breath this ongoing saga.

There is a shortage of field voles this year due to the unhelpful weather conditions in the spring.

The harvest cannot come soon enough for the owls as there will then be a brief glut of mice.

It is nearly a week since we saw the second barn owl chick hatch so we must assume the third egg is not viable.
We now look to the fourth egg hatching which could be this weekend.
The two chicks are growing fast and prey is becoming more plentiful.
On Thursday night the male brought in an extra six rodents!

Last night, at 9.20pm, the second chick broke out of its shell.
This was much later than anticipated.
The time between egg 1 and egg 2 hatching was eighty hours.
If goes well, the third chick should hatch around Tuesday evening.

2nd chick breaking out of shell

One of our regular owl watchers witnessed a stock dove egg appearing recently.

She writes ….

“Hello, I just wanted to get a message to the person who does the owl cam blog. They have written that an extra egg has been laid. In fact this is a pigeon egg as I witnessed it being kicked into the nest box when the female was clearing twigs from the box entrance. I posted on your Facebook page about it. After a couple of hours she seem to notice it just laying there away from her own eggs and promptly rolled it over and started to incubate it too.
So I think it will be very interested when/if it hatches!”

At 1312 today Class 1 at Broad Town Primary School in Swindon saw the first egg hatch.

Well done children.

The next chick is due early on Saturday morning.

The photo shows the female moving the newly hatched eggshell.

Eagle eyed viewers will notice we had extra egg on Monday. We have no idea why this was laid. A first for our owl cam.