Click to see latest pictures of released owlets – January 2017
Background story: In early November 2016, we received a phone call from Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue who had received two fallen owlets on the 22nd October.
After determining that they could not be returned to the box because the parents had abandoned them, they were housed at Bedfordshire Wildlife Rescue for another couple of weeks before their long journey to South Devon. Once at the Barn Owl Trust, the owlets were taken under the careful watch of Rick, from the Conservation Team. As soon as they arrived, the owlets were sexed, ringed and placed into a release aviary ready for their adventures into the big wide world in a couple of weeks.
After receiving some very attractive ‘bling’ so that we can identify them from a distance, the male and female owlets spent some time showing off their new rings in the release aviary.
On Monday the 6th December, these two Barn Owls were released from a static release aviary at the Barn Owl Trust. Our remote wildlife camera captured the owls returning for food during the night of the 6th and early hours of the 7th December. This is such a fantastic success story for these two Owlets.
Latest Pics – January 2017
As we entered the New Year, we though we would check up on our two released Barn Owls to see if they were still coming back for food after seeing some signs of them roosting in our Barn.
So on the 4th of January we re-positioned our remote wildlife camera over night to see what showed up. To our surprise and delight, both the male and female owls were returning and pulling some interesting faces for the camera.
Female Barn Owl (identified by the dark over light colour rings on her right leg):
Male Barn Owl (identified by the same coloured rings on his right leg):
Supplementary feeding will gradually be reduced as Spring approaches, by which time they will be fending for themselves.