Return to Goodwood….

There were 3 boxes we needed to return to tonight at The Goodwood Estate near Chichester and Dominic and I were joined by Emma and Alice from Farlington Ringing Group. Noz, Russell and his wife and son came along too to see what we were doing. I was slightly nervous as I was not sure what we would find (if anything)….

We started with the highest boxes first, the first was the Tawny Owl nest that previously had held an adult female Tawny on one small owlet and an egg.

Alice ringing a tawny owlet

Next we headed to one of the higher and more difficult boxes to access in a Walnut tree. We had found a male and female adult laying beside 6 eggs on the last visit and beat a hasty retreat. Today Russ and I headed back up and by surprise we found the adult female still in residence But with only 3 owlets, one of which was too small to ring.

Photo courtesey of Emma

The final box yielded four beautiful healthy owlets and we saw an adult leave the barn as we approached the box.

While I was extracting the owlets I felt something sticking up out from the the deep layer of shredded pellets in the box. Once the owlets were safely handed down to the team I pulled on the object and to my astonishment the skeleton of an owl came out with a BTO ring on its leg. I will need to wait to hear from the BTO with the details of when and where this bird was ringed. I do know it is not one of my rings.

4 beautiful owlets.

Huge thanks to Alice, Dominic and Emma for helping with the ringing and the team from Goodwood with the logisitics.

Goodwood are reaping the rewards of increasing the quantity of nest boxes on the estate and with even more going up this year, next year will hopefully be just as fruitful.