Marlow Peregrine breeding in Aylesbury

Peregrine (male) orange ring "T6R"

One of three peregrine chicks that fledged from Marlow church in 2021, has bred successfully in Aylesbury in 2026.

Mike Wallen of the Bucks Bird Club, who monitors the peregrine nest site on the Buckinghamshire Council building in Aylesbury, was able to identify this adult male from its coded orange colour-ring.

The unfolding drama at the nest site was witnessed via a nest webcam, as this intruding male displaced the male of the pair that had already started egg-laying. A detailed account of events can be found at Aylesbury peregrines

Valuable information such as this, on the life-cycle/longevity of individual birds is gathered through the BTO ringing scheme, and colour-ringing additionally enables identification of individuals without the need for their physical recapture.

 

  

 

  

PIT tagging barn owls

The Spring 2026 edition of the BTO Lifecycle magazine contains a feature on our barn owl PIT tagging project on p18. See link below: 

https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/bto-lifecycle-issue-17-spring-2026.pdf 

2026 Barn Owl season - mid-term report

The 2026 nesting season started early, with a first pair beginning egg-laying on 10th March.

Box checking during June revealed 32 nest attempts, with eggs already laid at half of these by end-March. Two of these attempts failed at the chick stage, possibly as a result of the excessively high temperatures in June. And chicks at several nests are already close to fledging.

So far 79 chicks have been ringed at 25 nests, an average of 3 chicks per brood. The remaining five nests will be revisited when the chicks are older.

Overall 2026 is shaping up to be our second best nesting year for Barn Owls, behind only 2024. And with first broods already fledging there is a possibility we'll be seeing some second brood attempts later this year.

 

 

 

 

 

Marlow Peregrines 2026

Following nesting successes in 2021 (3 chicks) and 2022 (4 chicks), a pair of Peregrines again nested on Marlow All Saints Church in 2026.

Their brood of 3 chicks were colour-ringed, so hopefully they will be spotted and identified during their lifetimes as they disperse to find their own nesting sites.

 

 

 

Early Nesting Year

2026 has seen our earliest pulli ringing dates over the last 8 years for:

Tawny Owl: April 25th (out of 18 records) 

Kestrel:  May 16th (out of 141 records)

Barn Owl: May 23rd (out of 360 records)

First Barn Owl egg of 2026...

 ...  we've received a report on 24th March from one of our camera boxes that a Barn Owl pair has laid their first egg.

This is a fairly typical date for an early nesting pair. Our nest box checks later in the year may reveal an earlier start to egg-laying elsewhere.

Hopefully this is a portent of a productive breeding year to come.

Edit: a brood was ringed on 23rd May where the first egg would have been laid around 10th March.  

 

Barn Owl Trust report for 2025

The Barn Owl Trust collation of over 30 independent Barn Owl Groups data for 2025 shows that it was a very poor year for Barn Owl breeding across most UK regions:

SOUKBOP-2025