Stow Little Owl Cam | WildlifeKate

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Stow Maries Little Owl Boxes

Little owls are often seen at the aerodrome. The landscape and old buildings is perfect for them. They have nested in the old buildings, but have visited some of the other boxes that Denis and I have set up.

Little Owl Lodge

We were keen to see if we could encourage them into a box with a camera. I had a little owl box at home, so gave it to Denis to put up on site. Building a small box to house a Birdsy cam inside, this box has been up since November, with very little interest and no owls had been in there until the evening of the 1st March, when a pair dropped in! They seem to like it and we hope they return! We decided to then swap the Birdsy cam for a higher resolution HiLook mini PTZ cam. This would then link to our iCatcher console, recording 24-7. Once we realised they were serious about using the box, Denis installed a cam on the outside too. This gives a fabulous low level view of the owls on the platform outside.

Little Owl Oak House

After seeing a little owl emerge from a little owl nest box, mounted in an Oak tree, Denis set up a Birdsy cam outside so we could monitor the box and see what was happening. With visits from little owls, jackdaws and stock doves, it was clear this was going to be a popular box. To prevent the jackdaws dominating this box, Denis installed two pieces of board that created a 'corridor' for the little owls to go down, to enter the box. The jackdaws eventually scared off the little owls, but this worked in our favour as they then took up residence in the box from which we are now filming.

Internal View of Little Owl Lodge

The grounds at Stow Maries provide perfect, unspoiled habitat for all manner of wildlife, due to the fact that it lay dormant for 100 years after WW1, allowing the wildlife to flourish. I have visited & photographed the amazing wildlife there on a number of occasions. The vast majority of the site is open grassland with woodland and although it has no statutory designation, it is home to many species of fauna and flora including all five species of British owls, a rarity in one location, as well as the 22 red listed birds, which have been sighted. Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome works in partnership with Natural England to improve and manage the ecology. As participants in their Entry and Higher level Stewardship schemes, the site work to carefully manage the site to get the very best habitats for the wildlife there.