Leconfield revisit…….

I met with Andrew and his daughter Milly to revisit 2 owl boxes at The Leconfield Estate. One box in a barn had 2 warm eggs in it on the last visit on the 11th June. We saw 2 adult barn owls fly out of the barn again as we approached it today and found evidence of primary moult on the floor of the barn as we entered. This did not bode well for owlets.

The box contained a crushed owl egg and a cold owl egg and at the far end of the box in a dip in the shredded pellets were what appeared to be warm Stock Dove eggs.

We retreated quickly to allow the adults to come back into their roost site.

Andrew was hopeful that another box might have owls in it, so we headed across the estate to a box cloe to where he had seen an unringed male barn owl reguarly in the past 2 weeks. This box had had a well developed Stock Dove in it on the last visit.

We put up the ladder and found that the previous stock dove chick had fledged and there were another 2 Stock Dove chicks in the nest. We ringed the two small chicks and as the chicks were returned to the nest we noticed some owl feathers towards the back of the nest. Unfortunately this was a dead nestling from the previous year wearing ring number GY84610.

Pair of stock dove chicks (IP)- photo by Milly Thompson

Sadly deceased Barn Owl (ring removed)

We headed back to Andrews house to discuss the potential of mist netting on the estate and in Andrew’s garden (over a cup of tea).

This really is the worst year I have experienced since starting Barn Owl ringing in 2010 with Barrie. The university of Sussex are looking into what might be causing this sudden drop off in breeding.

Details can be found here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx204gjx8xdo?at_format=link&at_ptr_name=facebook_page&at_link_id=15690730-62FA-11F0-AA0A-E61366C63AD3&at_medium=social&at_campaign_type=owned&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_link_origin=BBC_Sussex&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_type=web_link&fbclid=IwY2xjawLmMRpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHua2jEsV__h8v2OFgLiOHjy7e0iEkylPNr0DDTCS1ZleiUdiN9F_MxUChrvm_aem_Ue0cdIgwOSlsetfvv_JmFg