Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Pecking Order.

Before work commenced this morning I had a quick check on the Barn Owl nest cam, after five minutes of viewing no eggs could be seen so I can now only assume that all seven of them have hatched?  Because of the low image quality it is difficult to count exactly how many chicks there are in that moving fir ball, I can count at least 5, how about you?


The male owl had another good nights hunting as at least 4 prey items can be seen scattered about on the floor. The hen owl spends many hours ripping them apart into small morsels and feeds them to her brood. It is now a critical time for the youngest/smallest chicks, they are definitely last in line when it comes to being fed. If they can get enough food and grow fast enough hopefully they will avoid being eaten by their bigger siblings and their chances of survival will be greatly increased.
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2 comments:

  1. Douglas Mcfarlane11 September 2012 at 14:17

    Very hard, but at the bottom of the frame when I right click on the image to see it larger I think there's a sixth juvenile underneath one of the juve's

    ReplyDelete
  2. SusieB12 September 2012 at 07:39

    Amazing to see! Fingers crossed they do OK.

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