The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We made our first visit to the 22 boxes at our study site near Binbrook with some trepidation as other BOMP ringers had not found a very high take up of their boxes. We were pleasantly surprised that 7 had nesting Barn Owls ranging from 7 eggs to 2 chicks and 1 egg. In total there were 13 young and 16 eggs and all the young were recently hatched. There were a few prey items in the boxes, all were Field Voles apart from one mole! It is definitely a later season this year by two to three weeks. We ringed one adult male Barn Owl roosting in an unoccupied box. Jackdaws were everywhere and we ringed 22, all about ready to fledge. Finally, there were 2 Kestrels, both on 3 eggs. Lets hope there is enough food - we will see at the beginning of July.

The second visit today resulted in five broods of three Barn Owls ringed as well as one single chick and an adult female in the same box. The other occupied box contained no fewer than ten eggs with both adults present! In view of the time scale, I suspect most, if not all of them are infertile. We also managed to ring one brood of three Kestrels. Not too bad a season but I think prey items must have been difficult for the adults to find.