Mercy Mission?

Hi all, one of my farmer friends called me very early this morning, he'd discovered a Barn Owl lying face down in a ditch and didn't know what to do with it? He said it appeared to be injured but it was still alive as it turned its head when he got close. We talked through the possibilities of what we could do and what may have happened? Maybe it had been hit by a car, or could it have been attacked by another animal or bird, or even worse still had it been shot like the Barn Owl last Christmas? 

Because it was still alive and very close to a barn where I have a box I made a mad dash over to meet the farmer, with me I'd got a plastic box that could be used if necessary to transport it to the vets or local animal sanctuary.

The Barn  (a secret location).

Upon my arrival the farmer (Steve) pointed out the bird in the ditch, I gingerly moved nearer and upon closer inspection I realised it wasn't injured at all, it was a fledged juvenile!!! Now this was very interesting indeed, just where had this bird come from? Judging by its downy appearance pretty close by was my guess, there was no way it could have travelled any distance. There was really only one explanation, it must have come from the box within the nearby barn. The young bird was collected up and placed safely inside the plastic box that I'd brought with me, then Steve called me over to where he was standing, he'd discovered another young owl that was lying on the ground just inside the barn, that too was quickly placed with its sibling inside the plastic box. 

A quick call was then made to Mike our local ringer, my apologies were made for calling him so early, I explained the situation and he said he'd be with us in 30 minutes. Whilst we waited for Mike to arrive Steve and I had a good look around to make sure there were no other young birds that we'd missed, there wasn't. I then checked inside the nest box, it was then that full confirmation was attained as inside was yet another young bird!

The nest box (No 41).

All three owls were now safely placed inside the plastic box, here they seemed content whilst we prepared for the ringing of them. I did managed to record the events on my I-phone, not great images but good enough for me to share in this post.

Mike was soon with us and in no time at all he was ringing the first bird, this one seemed to be the eldest as it was less downy than the other two.

Juvenile No 1

Juvenile No 1

Juvenile No 1

Owl number 2 was soon processed too.

Juvenile No 2

Juvenile No 2

And then finally owl number 3.

Juvenile No 3

Juvenile No 3

The whole brood.

So what initially appeared to be a phone call full of dread and a potential mercy mission actually turned out to be a welcome bonus and a new Barn Owl family that I didn't even know were there! That is now 10 confirmed breeding sites within my survey area in 2015,  we are now well on our way to our target of 30 breeding sites, if things keep going like this then the magical number could well be achievable in a few years?

Many thanks to Steve and Mike, top blokes!!

I'll be back again soon folks!