This week I finished developing and enhancing the Barn Owl barn…..I think.
During the summer months, when the adult Barn Owls are tending their brood, they roost outside the nursery box. It inevitably becomes too crowded, with 3-5 large owlets taking all the space. This new roosting box, situated in their barn, provides them with an alternative daytime roosting site. It doesn’t have a floor so cant be used as a nesting site - the pic to the left shows perching bars, made from hazel.
Additionally, this new box provides potential shelter for a Barn Owl, which has UWNR within its range, but is not resident. Adult Barn Owls can have ranges up to 5000 hectares and UWNR has abundant prey species, so is an attractive hunting habitat. Barn Owls are not territorial. In the winter, older more experienced birds exploit all their range and boxes scattered throughout this range are hugely beneficial to the Owl - particularly if weather conditions change. A port in a storm….
On the same day, this happened….
I was working near a thicket of dense, old, wild rose and found this Robin completely entangled - in fact crucified. It had been in a territorial scrap with another Robin and come off second best. The extraordinary thing, was how passive the bird was, as I snipped it free of the spiky, entrapping vegetation. This is the end of a delicate operation, which took the best part of 15-20 mins. And yes it flew away freely….
