July 5th 2023 – It looks like our two remaining owl eggs are not viable!

5 July 2023

It is now eleven days since the second chick hatched so we must assume the remaining two barn owl eggs won’t hatch.

As for the “rogue” stock dove egg it is anyone’s guess what will happen, but the odds are stacked against it.

There is also a possibility the male owl isn’t bringing in enough prey. On Monday he visited the nest with a mouse at 11pm and wasn’t seen again that night. The female eventually left the chicks unguarded for two spells, eventually catching a mouse herself.

It is very rare in the barn owl world for mum to leave tiny young, especially as she left them at one point for an hour and four minutes!

So we continue to watch with bated breath this ongoing saga.

There is a shortage of field voles this year due to the unhelpful weather conditions in the spring.

The harvest cannot come soon enough for the owls as there will then be a brief glut of mice.