November 2012
1 post
Two become three as orphan raised by foster...
Two become three as orphan raised by foster parents
5th November 2012
“Later barn owl broods can face difficult challenges as parents go into moult and are less able to hunt to feed their young. But this story has a happy ending as area co-ordinator for Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s work to Bring Back Suffolk’s Barn Owl, Chris McIntyre reveals:
This year East Anglia experienced its wettest July...
August 2012
5 posts
crabbsnest asked: just to say thank you for a wonderful few months the owls have given me so much pleasure ,but they had to go and be grown up owls , so thank you team take care
Goodbye to Mr & Mrs P and Chick P's for now...
Just to let everyone know that the webcamera will be switched off shortly, but watch this space for more barn owl news coming soon! We won’t see much of Mr & Mrs P until next year as they spread their wings further afield, if you visit Redgrave & Lopham Fen you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of them or their Chick P’s floating over the Fen.
July 2012
4 posts
Chick P's hunting practice
Once the Chick P’s have fledged they will hang around the nest box for a few days or even weeks, hoping to get food from Mr & Mrs P for as long as possible. Mr & Mrs P will train their Chick P’s to hunt for their own food, and once they have got in some hunting practice the Chick P’s will be sent on their way by Mr & Mrs P.
The Chick P’s will fly away from...
Little Chick P's are getting ready to fly!
Have they or haven’t they? Look carefully and we can see a few tail feathers moving at the top of the webcam view. The Chick P’s are most likely sitting on the top shelf of the nest box looking out of the hole. This is what we call ‘branching out’ where the Chick P’s will hop in and out of the nest box and maybe along a nearby branch - it will take a little while...
Mr & Mrs P have three daughters!
Yes it’s official, Mr & Mrs P are the proud parents of three daughters - our volunteer Area Coordinator, Patrick Barker, who is licensed to ring barn owls, carefully measured and weighed our Chick P’s before placing metal rings around their legs -this helps us to identify these individual birds and find out more about their future lives.
Vital statistics on Tuesday 3rd July
The...
June 2012
2 posts
"Psh psh psh"... say the three Chick P's begging... →
The webcamera may not be accessible all day today…to keep your imagination going here is a link where you can listen to the sounds of barn owl young and adults and compare them to other owls you may more commonly hear in our Suffolk countryside.
Watch
Lessons in preening from Mum.
May 2012
15 posts
1 tag
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Come back mum!
See the size difference between the Chick P’s? Chick P no.1 has had over a weeks more growing time than Chick P no. 4. Chick P no. 4 will need to stay strong and will face competion for food from three larger siblings. Mr P is going to be busily hunting to feed Mrs P and four hungry mouths. We are hopeful as Mr & Mrs P successfully raised their four chicks last year...
woodchip1 asked: Do you know what happened to last years brood ?
My how they have grown!
Thank you to Jane Webber from Ipswich who has spotted that we now have four Chick P’s who, happily, have moved into full view of the camera (for the time being!). Notice how all the Chick P’s are different sizes? This is because they hatched two days apart and so Chick P no. 1 has had a lot more eating and growing time than Chick P no.4. Chick P no. 4 will need to be strong to...
Where is that Mr P again?
Has anyone noticed that Mr P is not around much during the daytime now? He is not sleeping inside the nest box with Mrs P anymore. From now on Mr P will only ever visit the nest box to deliver food to his family. He will roost somewhere else nearby. Once the chicks are bigger he will be busy hunting at all hours to feed Mrs P and four hungry mouths. Have you seen Mr P?
Chick P number two?
Polly Mander has seen a second chick being washed by Mrs P at 7.20 this morning! The live webcamera has been up and running today, and so Mrs P has moved into the far corner of the nest box to sleep! She can occasionally be seen bobbing her head, which is most likely to be her tearing up a small mammal food item to feed tiny pieces to her tiny chicks.
Barn owls are ‘crepuscular’...
Mr P brings food, Mrs P feeds her two day old
Following the hatching of the first Chick P, it was noticable that Mr P was regularly delivering food to the nest box, rain had stopped and hunting was good, however mating seems to be off the menu!
At 8.30pm tonight Mrs P could be seen repeatedly pecking at a small mammal food item. If she was eating this for herself it would be down in one gulp, but if you watch closely you will see she pulls...
We have our first Chick P!
at around 7.45pm tonight Gail Arnold was lucky enough to spot Mr & Mrs P’s first Chick P hatching! At 9.45 Mrs P popped out of the box for a short while to reveal the tiny Chick P among the other three eggs! Chick P’s siblings should hatch out around two days apart in the order they were laid - can you spot the next Chick P arrival?
Send us you screen shots and post your...
1 tag
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We have our first chick P!
We are working on the technical hitch - keep...
We apologise that people have experienced difficulties with connecting to the live webcamera. We have a technical hitch with broadband streaming and we are working to fix this as soon as possible.
At 2.30pm today we saw Mr & Mrs P both inside the nest box. This would indicate that there are no chicks yet as Mr P is usually evicted from the nest box once the chicks hatch! Look out for Mrs...
Chick P's coming soon!
If you want to see barn owl chicks hatching as it happens, keep an eagle eye on our barn owl webcamera this weekend. We are expecting our first of Mr & Mrs P’s eggs to hatch this weekend or early next week. So keep an eye on Mr & Mrs P and let us know if there are any developments. If you get any screen shots of hatching or the first chick, please send them to...
We want to know if you've seen a barn owl
If you’ve recently spotted a barn owl in Suffolk - or out, please record this sighting on our online map: www.ispywildlife.org/barnowl
We will use this information to help target our conservation efforts for barn owl in the county. Thank you!
woodchip1 asked: I made 3/4 comment siteings early hours of this morning but they seem to have disappeared
"What is that white stuff?"
…asks Michi Garcia Cooper. The “white stuff” you can see inside the nest box is barn owl feathers…most likely belonging to Mrs P. Whilst sitting on eggs the female barn owl will ’moult’ her ‘primary’ feathers. This means that the big feathers that Mrs P uses for flying will drop off to make room for new feathers to grow. Moulting feathers is a...
April 2012
14 posts
Life inside Mr & Mrs P's barn owl nest box...
Has anyone seen Mrs P cough up a barn owl pellet yet? The layer of ’bedding’ in the bottom of the nest box is made up of barn owl pellets which they cough up on a regular basis. Pellets are made of the indigestible fur and bones of the small mammals that they eat. By studying barn owl pellets you can find out a lot about what they eat and we know that their favourite food is a...
Phew! Mr P returns
After waiting with baited breath, at 9.05pm, Jen Jousiffe saw Mr P return to Mrs P with a small mammal offering and had a quick mate before heading back out to hunt again. Still only 4 eggs…
Where is Mr P?
Thank you to Anne White who has e mailed us to say that she has not seen Mr P all morning since first light. We think Mr P has been hunting all night and is resting and drying off at another roost somewhere nearby. Barn owl’s find it difficult to hunt for food when there is wet weather. Barn owl feathers are special feathers which give them silent flight so they can catch small mammals...
1 tag
WatchBrunch and 4 eggs!
Here is Mrs P having a little brunch that Mr P prepared for her (at 10pm!). Then she steps aside to reveal the fourth egg that many of you sharp-eyed viewers spotted has arrived this weekend.Keep an eye out for the metal ring on Mrs P’s right leg, the unique identification number on this ring tells us that she is a female barn owl who originally came from Roydon, the...
Egg-sighting times
We’ve had reports of a fourth egg from Mrs P. If anyone manages to get a screen shot we’d love to see it. Please email it to oka.last@suffolkwildlifetrust.org - we’ll try to get one up soon, but she’s sitting tight on them at the moment.
Thanks to all who are keeping such a watchful eye on the busy couple.
The stream is up and running again - for now.
1 tag
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Sorry!
The stream is down - we’ll post again as soon as we are up and running. Here’s a snippet of dinner arriving to tide you over………..
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We have three eggs!
Thanks to eagle eyed blog watcher Jackie, she’s just informed us that she has spotted a third egg. Let us know if you see it too.
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We have an egg!
The first egg was laid on Friday (13th April) evening between around 6pm and 11pm. We can’t see if any more have been laid as the female is sitting tight and the male is sleeping in front of the camera!
We hope to have some footage of this soon.
Oka (barn owl adviser at Suffolk Wildlife Trust)
1 tag
WatchFeeding and mating. The male barn owl brings food to the female to impress her and to keep her in tip-top condition for breeding.
1 tag
WatchSome footage of the owls preening each other. This is part of courtship and helps the barn owls to bond as a pair. This barn owl pair successfully raised four chicks last year in this very same nest box and it it likely that they will remain as Mr & Mrs P for the rest of their lives.
7 tags
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Welcome to our barn owl blog
Never miss the latest news about Suffolk’s barn owls, find out more about their secret lives and how you can help them thrive in our countryside.
Throughout the summer of 2012 we beamed live from a barn owl nest box at Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Redgrave & Lopham Fen nature reserve. The owls were unofficially dubbed ‘Mr & Mrs P’ after...
