Barn Owls at Sharnbrook

Following on from last weeks success this morning we were again over the border, this time in Bedfordshire at Sharnbrook.

The Group had been contacted by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), who had themselves been contacted by Unilever in Sharnbrook, asking if we could review and possibly ring some Barn Owls in a box on the Unilever site.

We were guided to the site by Simon Wantling, from Unilver, and we were pleased to find four very healthy owlets in the box. These were all duly ringed and returned to the safety of their box. All disturbance and ringing is carried out under strict Schedule 1 licence requirements.

One of the Barn Owls after ringing.

All safely returned to their box.

Barn Owls at Olney Park Farm

 Last week, accompanied by Chris Payne and John Boland we checked seven Barn Owl boxes on Olney Park Farm, just over the Northamptonshire border in North Buckinghamshire.
Two of the boxes contained Barn Owls. The first had three owlets, which were duly ringed, and the second had a stunning female along with two owlets. The female was ringed although the owlets were too small at present and will require a further visit. All ringing is undertaken under strict Schedule 1 permit restrictions.

Althorp Barn Owls

 

The Althorp Barn Owls which were ringed on the 28th May are continuing to grow really well with very attentive parents with the male bird now taking on the major hunting of mice & voles. The female bird could very possibly be contemplating laying her second brood of eggs very soon, if not already. Having a 4G camera 24/7 in situ, has been great to watch the chicks progress since they hatched. I've watched recently as many as 14 feeds coming in one night & evidently they cash them to one side to eat later if the chicks were full. 

Its a busy time for Schedule1 ringers around the county at the moment & all with the necessary licences being held.

It's with the kind cooperation of Earl Spencer & the Althorp Estate Conservation Managers that I have been granted access to restricted areas on the estate to survey & supply new boxes to extend their coverage of Barn Owl boxes on the huge estate. Signs are looking very positive.

Nesting season underway.

 I checked fourteen of the boxes at Chase Park Farm this morning and two have lined nests with eggs, three have fully lined nests but no eggs, three have full moss bases, four have bits of moss and grass and two are empty so far.

Whilst walking the farm a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was drumming in Yardley Chase, which is adjacent to the farm and a Common Redstart was singing along the main farm track.

A trail camera is positioned in front of the bug hotel and caught this nice image of a Red-legged Partridge.

Helping Barn Owls

 BARN OWLS & Boxes

Its been a frantic couple of months for me so far this year after the successful take up of Barn Owls in boxes on the private Courteenhall Estate near Northampton. There are now 10 new boxes on this estate with the first four being put up last October/November. Within a number of weeks there were clear signs that the owls were taking full advantage of their new abodes, with a good number of pellets found in the vicinity as well as inside each box & by observation by the estate team flying in & out from them.

 

News travelled to neighbouring farmers & landowners about the Courteenhall Barn Owls & became a headline report on the local BBC News & the owner of the Estate was then interviewed on BBC Radio Northampton.

The demand for Barn Owl boxes from me was amazing with the second batch for Courteenhall, some more for three estates in Norfolk & more recently six put up on the Althorp Estate where there are existing boxes of which some will have to be replaced in the future. Both Northampton Estates, Althorp & Courteenhall have given the Northants Ringing Group permission to do bird ringing in the future. We had a very successful 1st ringing session on Courteenhall Estate a while back with well over 200 Goldfinches ringed on the day.

I will be overseeing the Barn Owls ringing in future at both sites & also at Kelmarsh Estate where they have four boxes & there are a number of other individual sites I maintain too. This is all carried out under strict rules & a special Schedule 1 licence through the BTO at the specified site locations.

Lets hope we will have the chance to ring many chicks at the Northants Ringing groups numerous Barn Owl sites later in the year. 

 

 

Chris Payne - Chairman of Northants Ringing Group  

 Welcome to our blog

It's aim is to highlight the activities of the group ringing over a wide variety of sites. Reports of ringing sessions will appear here on a regular basis and contributors will post items of interest about the ringing process.

Our stats guru Nick has compiled a detail list for the ringing totals each year going back to 2002, but his coolest item on the Blog is the interactive maps under Recovery and Controls. View these maps to see the full picture of the range of birds travelling to and from Northants.  The furthest recovery is a Redwing recovered at Beirut Airport, with a Mallard north of Moscow not far behind.

Regards

John Boland

A fascinating piece of work begins today as I begin loading years of historical data into the group Recoveries and Controls maps.

A couple of good reads