2023 nesting season underway

Barn Owls at one of our camera nest boxes laid their first egg on 2nd May.

This is a relatively late date, so we'd expect to find some other local pairs will have started before this.

BBOG Report 2022

  The BBOG Report for 2022 is available by clicking on this link: BBOG Report 2022

2022 Barn Owl nesting season overview

5 week old Barn Owl chick

With 33 Barn Owl chicks ringed and fledged in our study area, overall productivity in 2022 was in line with previous years average.

There were 22 nest attempts at 25 occupied boxes, 15 of which successfully fledged chicks.

It appears that the severe summer drought reduced the availability of food, leading to several brood losses.

 

New barn owl box for BBOWT

Today we installed a Barn Owl box for BBOWT, replacing one that had blown down in the storms earlier this year.

Being able to work off their land-rover made the task much simpler than having to use ladders.

Three Hundred Up!

This week the 300th Barn Owl chick was ringed in our study area, since the BBOG project launched in 2014.

This total being from 115 nests where the chicks were ringed.

 

2022 Nesting Season underway

At two of our Barn Owl boxes with live-cameras, the first eggs were laid on 6th April and 14th April, fairly typical dates.

Edit: Subsequently a nest was found where egg-laying had commenced on 16th March.

Elsewhere, the Marlow Peregrines began egg-laying on 25th March, 8 days earlier than last year. The clutch was completed with 4 eggs all of which hatched and fledged successfully.

BBOG Report 2021

 The BBOG Report for 2021 is available by clicking on this link: BBOG Report 2021