@chrissperring.bsky.social

Would you look at that! Even with vole numbers hit hard by the drought, this nest site has produced seven owlets — and it’s a second brood, too! The groundwork for this success was laid before the vole shortage set in, and now that the rains have arrived, these little ones might just pull through.

“There was 7 in the nest and the next one said”. I have followed these from egg to fledging, 8 barn owl eggs laid, 7 owlets fledged. Voles flooding in and there’s a prey store now in the adjacent box where the female roosts. Second brood anyone?

Barn Owlets in a nesting box

Dairy farmer Rosie and myself launching a new farming cluster group that will link up farms using rough grassland margins for Owls and Voles, a much wider diversity of species just waiting to be unlocked.

Bild