WInter 2023/24 Barn Owl Season

During the 2023/24 winter season (Nov-Feb) 13 barn owls were encountered roosting at our RAS nest boxes.
 
Six of which were new ringed: All had fledged in 2023, and had likely dispersed into our area

Seven were subsequent encounters:
Including 2 controls from Devon (234km) and Gloucester (68km) ringed as chicks in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
Plus retraps of birds fledged from RAS boxes in 2019 and 2021

As well as PIT tagging the 6 new birds, tags were added to 3 of the 7 re-encounters (the other 4 already being tagged). Hopefully we'll get readings of all these birds during the upcoming RAS season.

  

 

One of the new ringed females was another well marked bird exhibiting orangy breast feathers as shown here:

 

 

 

Barn Owl arrives from Cotswolds

When checking a box in the Thames Valley this week, we encountered a female Barn Owl that had been ringed as a chick last year 68km away in the North Cotswolds.