June 15th 2021

The fourth egg has been laid.

Yesterday at 11.12am the female laid her fourth egg.

The next is due on Wednesday night.

Yesterday evening at 8.20pm the third egg was laid.

The fourth is due early on Monday morning.

At 9.45am this morning the second egg was laid.

The third is due on Friday.

After a long wait the female barn owl laid her first egg of the year just after 3am this morning.

If all goes well the second should arrive sometime on Wednesday.

This morning there is prey item in the nest box, the first one this year. This could be a sign our male is provisioning the hen bird ready for egg laying.

So far this season the owls have been catching and eating their food outside. We must not get our hopes up too high as it has been a strange season so far with few signs of adult breeding behaviour.

Everything is very late in the natural world this year but maybe there is a glimmer of hope for our owls?

We are pleased to say that the camera feed has been reinstated and we are back online as of 4.00pm this evening.

Unfortunately the camera is temporarily offline this morning. We are investigating and hope that normal service will be resumed shortly.

Still no sign of any egg laying activity – why not? That was the question posed to our resident Owl Expert over the weekend. He advises that the apparent lack of activity is likely due to the abnormally cold and wet weather that we have experienced over the last few weeks which will have restricted grass growth which in turn will have reduced the vole population which in turn will have restricted the owl’s diet which will have restricted the owls condition for breeding. Looking at the box you will see no evidence of any surplus food.

Nature is a wonderful thing. We can only hope that now things are beginning to become a bit warmer (fingers crossed) we will begin to see the return of the more normal pattern of life for our guests.

We are afraid that our earlier prediction of the first egg appearing before the end of April was just a little wide of the mark! Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that breeding generally this year is somewhat later than normal, possibly as a result of the abnormally current cold weather. However, the pair in residence seem to be well and we can only say that we continue to expect the first egg imminently (fingers crossed and with the usual disclaimers!).

We are back! Following a very wet winter period and having overcome some tech gremlins, we are beginning to see the first tentative indications of Spring and occupancy by at least one Owl with a further one making occasional fleeting appearances. You will notice some twigs in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, these were brought on by an interloping pigeon a few days ago who seems to have been evicted after a slight stand off by the Owl.

We are hoping that egg laying could commence towards the end of next month, Fingers crossed!!