Lovely! Thanks for sharing.
[All we have are Magpie chicks in our garden - not anywhere near so cute or impressive, but interesting to watch all the same.]
Super cute :-)
We've had a barn owl box up for ten years now and every year we get a pair breeding in it.
This is the first year we've been able to spot the youngsters.... Spotted last week doing practice flights across the field.
Lovely! Thanks for sharing.
[All we have are Magpie chicks in our garden - not anywhere near so cute or impressive, but interesting to watch all the same.]
Great picture, always a treat to see owls.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
SWMBO has been doing guard duty on the owl box this year. Despite Chris Packhams' consternations we've frequently had issues where the local corvids have been dive bombing the father owl when he's been out in the daytime trying to catch food. e.g. a couple of times he's dropped the prey when returning to the box because of harassment by magpies etc... Often SWMBO has run out of the house and down the field trying to scare them away. At the moment we have a family of seven magpies creating a nuisance :-(
Great to see that picture. They are such amazing birds. We have one somewhere local and occasionally get to see it hunting over nearby fields. It's stunning to watch. Mesmerising tbh
Fantastic picture and seeing them successfully fledge must be very satisfying.
Wonderful pic.
It must be very satisfying to help those beautiful birds.
Yes we're like proud parents :-)
Our house is for sale and I'm really worried what the new owners will do re. the field and the owls. At the moment the field isn't used so it's basically all for the owls. If the new people start using it, for example, as a quad bike play area then the owls will go. Ditto looking after the box. You have to check it for repair and a couple of years ago we had to replace it due to the old one falling apart. Will the new people continue with this?
Barn owls are in decline because their feeding grounds and nesting sites are diminishing. They like stubbly fields... i.e. grazing land. Too much of the land is getting built on or turned into fields of crops. It's all a bit sad really :-(
Great picture, thanks for posting.
I wouldn’t worry too much, they’re pretty resilient and intelligent animals, if they don’t like somewhere they’ll be offski.
Regarding their particular preferred habitat, they need voles/mice, and if that happens to be stubbly fields then happy days.
Round here in Lincs, the owl population is unbreakably linked to the vole/mouse population, if the food does well then the owls do too.
Owls are harassed by all sorts of other birds, I’ve sat and watched Kestrels snatching prey the owls were carrying back to the nest. I guess everything has to eat!
Beautiful picture by the way!
Superb!
Great picture, we have a couple of Barn Owls where we live. Always see one of them when I'm coming home off a night shift in the summer months flying low across the fields, can't beat it👍
Thanks for sharing the amazing picture, we have barn owls in the field next door and my sons love trying to spot them at dusk. Amazing birds that need some help!
Gorgeous. I know we have some around where we live as I can hear them at night. Not seen them though.
I met up with an old owl friend of mine yesterday, told me he was getting married. I said ' you twit, to who?.....sorry terrible I know..
and this is 'dad' sat on his porch.
Late evening from quite some distance so as to not disturb him :-)