SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Friday, November 4, 2011

Super Size Please

Gloucestershire News - 1 June 2011
A Gloucestershire farm is hoping to encourage barn owls to nest by offering them three 'super-sized' luxury homes.

The 10ft tall 'Barn Owl Manors' have been erected in Down Ampney on a farm selected to be part of the Co-operative's Habitat Heroes project.

Each box is fitted with a high-tech camera system and its size deters other territorial birds from nesting in them.

The Barn Owl Center said they had created the "perfect environment" for owl pairs on the farm.

Down Ampney farm manager James Taylor had spotted pairs of barn owls circling the trees at different locations around the farm.

He said being part of this project had given them the chance to "look at ways we can really make our land work for local wildlife".

The 4ft nesting boxes, believed to be the first of their kind, stand on 6ft stilts and were created by the Barn Owl Center in Gloucester.

Six farms across the UK are taking part in the Co-operative's Habitat Heroes project to improve the breeding opportunities for species like barn owls, otters, bats and red squirrels.