Begging Barn Owl Chicks

The Owlet in the photo is from a different site from 2020 and is much younger.

This is from a site in St. Andrew. It had been used regularly for breeding around twenty years ago when there were lots of sightings of adults and owlets from a keen Barn Owl watcher. In recent years, no owls have been seen. The old box was replaced around three years ago. It was checked in spring, 2022 but there were no signs of occupation.

One night in June I had been staking out another box with Ben Le Prevost – to no avail. He suggested that we stop by this box on the way back. As soon as we stopped the car and wound down the windows, we heard the unmistakable sound of at least one Barn Owl chick begging for food. I went back a couple of evenings later and made the recording. it was after 10 pm but the crows were still out and about, as you can hear in the recording.

As we knew the box was being used, we arranged with Chris Mourant of the Channel Island Bird Ringing Scheme to come and take a look. On 23rd June two female owlets were ringed. They were both in very good condition. They were around 60 days and 56 days old respectively, with very little down and close to flying. They will spend the next few months in the box and will continue to be fed by the parents. It will be late autumn when they finaly leave and probably will not go that far. One may even find the nest box we were checking in the first place.