We are now heading for the half way point in our tawny owl’s incubation and she’s still sitting strong, thank goodness. Other than a few brief forays outside, she is staying in the nest box. She never leaves for more than half an hour, to stretch her wings, have a drink… and a bath if possible! This clips shows her returning with a very wet face!
I obviously have loads of footage, but most of the time, she is just sitting there, moving around a bit and stretching as she rearranges herself. I have tried to lift interesting footage, that is mostly the male bringing her food back. I am also keeping a record of when he does this and what the food is. This week, the prey items totalled 16 wood mice, 1 rat, 1 frog and one goldcrest.
Primarily, the food that is being brought in is wood mice. If she has a lot of food brought in, then she ‘saves’ it in the nest box, sometimes eating it in the day as a snack!
I love the calls they make to each other. Listen out for the male calling as he comes in with food and the calls they make to each other at exchange.
We have had a couple of other prey species brought in this week too….
This young rat arrived and looked as if the male might have already eaten part of it!
Last week, we had a tree creeper… this week it is a Goldcrest!
We also had another frog. She attempted to eat it, but gave up, regurgitated it and then tore some bits off before having a second attempt. They really don’t look very appetising!
It was quite a warm day earlier in the week and she appeared to be panting a little to keep cool…
It is not only the tawny footage that had me excited this week… our badgers have moved up a notch, spending increasing amounts of time in the camera sett. We regularly have 2 individuals in there but, at one point, there were three in there. The new microphones are better, although I still need to fiddle around with the settings.
I am thrilled that these individuals are spending more time in our sett chambers and I am hoping it won’t be long before they spend the daytime in here.
One morning, they woke up and suddenly realised it was light outside… it was half past 6… they made a quick run for the other sett!
The other cams have been somewhat neglected as it takes me so long to go through this footage!
We have had interest in our nest box though and we’re hoping this blue tit pair nest in there this year…
Also, picked up this rather handsome pheasant coming though… such stunning birds!O
Only another 2 weeks until our Tawny eggs hatch, hopefully! Take a look at the CJWildlife live cams if you have the chance. They have a tawny box with two tiny chicks that hatched earlier in the week…
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