Barn Owl Nest Camera | Courtship & Defending The Nest – Robert E Fuller

March 2019 Update

Update: Barn Owl Love in the Box

What's new on the Barn Owl Nest Camera this Month

The barn owl courtship is hotting up. The pair are still deciding which nest box to finally settle into but most of their time is spent at The Elm Stump. Read on to follow the story of their courtship this month and scroll down to see the paintings inspired by this barn owl pair.

Click here to read my previous blog which details the love story of these barn owls from January.

And keep checking into this blog for all the latest news!

March 20th 2019

Barn Owls Focus on Breeding

Barn Owl Breeding

This sequence is taken over a few days from inside my Barn Owl Nest Box. It shows the barn owl pair mating frequently. They are now focussed on breeding for this year. But they also find time to re-affirm their bond by preening one another frequently.

https://youtu.be/vASEluHEU74

Click on video to play

March 20th 2019

Barn Owls Explore 'The Tower' Nest Box

Choosing a nest site

Although the barn owl pair seemed to me to have mostly settled on the Beech Stump for a nest box, the final choice of a site is yet to be decided. Occasionally my cameras have picked the pair up inside this box behind my workshed. I built this box last year in the hope that a different pair would use it, since I can get several pairs in my garden. It sits on a tower where I can photograph the entrance from a hide.

I put cameras inside this February, after I noticed the barn owls going in and out. Watch the female begin to dig a nest scrape out of the wood chipping lining the bottom of the box. The male comes in and mates her - just look at her resigned expression when he arrives!

https://youtu.be/GM2dxuvP69g

Click to watch the video above

March 13th 2019

Barn Owls Settle Into Routine At The Elm Stump

Choosing a nest box

The barn owls seem to have settled into a routine at Elm Stump. Watch as the female fusses with the nest scrape whilst the male is out hunting. He brings her a mouse, they mate and then he goes back out to hunt whilst she devours his offering. As she settles down to sleep he keeps watch. It has been raining outside and his feathers are waterlogged!

https://youtu.be/TwKws11Yt0Q

Click to watch the video above

March 3rd 2019

Barn Owls Invade Kestrel Nest

Barn Owls Explore Alternative Nest Sites

The barn owls have been spotted in the kestrel's nest box. The female kestrel was rightly outraged after catching them inside her home at Sycamore Stump! Watch her stand aggressively at the entrance whilst the two barn owls cower inside. Nest sites are often fiercely contested over at the time of year as all the birds try to find the best place to raise a brood.

https://youtu.be/U1q71JlO-aU

Click on the image above to play video

March 3rd 2019

Barn Owls Step Up Their Nightly Guard at the Elm Stump

The barn owl pair at night

At night the barn owl pair living in the Elm Stump divide their time up between guarding their nest box and continuing their courtship. Of course they also go hunting in the evenings and early mornings but this sequence follows their time at the nest. Interestingly they seem to have stepped up their guard - and apparently with good reason. Notice their reaction when an intruder flies past.

https://youtu.be/UYA5Ues2EfE

Click to watch video above