Meet this year’s barn owl box pair whom we have named Barny and Marny. I know it’s not the same pairing as last year as this year I can tell the female apart from the male. The female Marny has much darker tail stripes and darker freckly spots on her back. It is possible that one of them, possibly Barny is the same male as last year but I just don’t know.
Here Marny appears to be looking at the camera!
The pair show affection by rubbing and pecking at each other’s cheeks.
This year we have had the sound working and I was able to observe that the male did repeating screechings as his mating call. Then during mating the female did some chortling and chook chook sounds.
We spotted the first egg on the morning of the 15th April. It’s possible it had been laid the evening before. It’s a good few weeks later than last year. We wonder if the wet, cold conditions have delayed Marny reaching her optimum weight for egg laying.
Yesterday evening, the 16th we saw a second egg had been laid. Eggs are laid at approximately two day intervals. Last year 5 eggs were laid, 5 chicks hatched but only 2 chicks survived to fledge.
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 