 |
| Brood of 2 kestrel chicks |
There were 9 nest attempts (10 in 2022), of which 8 were successful, with 19 chicks fledged from the 7 nests where chicks were ringed.
However productivity of 2.7 chicks fledged per successful nest was down from last year's 3.5.
The increasing number of boxes with Kestrel nests is further evidence of this species recovery from a low point 20-30 years ago.
 |
| Tawny Owl (adult female) |
This makes as good a result as we've had in previous years.
Tawny Owls usually start egg-laying by end-March, earlier than both Little and Barn Owls.
Update: single chicks were subsequently ringed at each nest. One of the adult females had been ringed in 2016, and is estimated now to be in its tenth calendar year.
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.
.JPG) |
| 5 week old Barn Owl chick |
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.
Being able to work off their land-rover made the task much simpler than having to use ladders.
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.
