Hi. I'm not sure how to post this. But I'm just wondering if anyone knows much about barn owls? We've been watching barn owls in a box for a while now, anyway tonight we went and the box was on the floor. Sad is an understatement. However we were last there on Saturday and it was fine then. But I told my brother he had to go and check because for all we knew they were still alive. There was 4 as far as we had seen, however, there was a dead one in the field last week which we don't know if it was one of them as we only seen one adult out. But anyway, my brother went into the field and lifted the box and one flew straight out, which was good because he flew and seemed to fly ok. But then a second one was a bit more confused but he did come out however, he looked to be too close to the water and kind of hopped to the fence away from the box. I did see him fly/jump up on the fence but I'm sure he was injured. We did try looking for him but couldn't find him. (I'm saying he/him but I'm not sure if they were male). My brother thinks they were both the young ones but they did have their main feathers. Now we've never seen the young out the box so we're not sure if they would know what they're doing. And I'm just really worried right now because I want them to make it. So is it possible the parent, (they've nested there many years), would come back to them or they would call for each other? I really don't like bad or sad news so I'm hoping someone can just tell me their instincts will kick in and they will be able to go on. It wasn't a huge fall to the ground but big enough to shock them. It was the wildlife trusts box but it was rotten my brother says. But it just seemed like nobody really cared much when my brother finally got through to them and they said they'd tell someone tomorrow morning from the wildlife trust. I know nature is nature and I know there's more chance they won't survive but is it possible they will be make it back from this? It's really sad to see this happen to them. I'm more than happy to take hate for telling my brother to go into the field as it was trespassing but the fact that we knew there was a chance they'd still be alive, would do it over and over again so they didn't have to suffocate or suffer knowing nobody was going to save them.
Thank you in advance.
Sarah
So you could approach the landowners and tell them that the box has fallen. They presumably must know it is there and possibly have a connection with a wildlife organisation who may have installed it in the fits instance. They might then be able to go and scope the area out and see what can be done.
It's wildlife trust who put it up and northumbrian water land which we did both. Wildlife trust have been out today and moved the box and also took the bottom off it so I'm assuming they opened it up for a look. But not sure what the future holds for that box. But I'm more worried that the barn owls might not survive now due to them crashing down however I can't stop wondering what would have happened if we had just left it alone.
I saw your messages on Facebook and I know exactly where you mean. That box ha been there a very long time so hopefully it just fell because of decay rather than vandalism. Hopefully the box can be replaced and the owls resettle and are not injured .
Hi. I think it's more than likely you're right about it falling down. But even the wildlife guy on the phone said it needed replacing. So they knew it needed to be done. Someone said there was 3 in the box last week however the video I took last week was one on top of the box which I'm assuming it was one of the young that had found it's flight so maybe that's why there was only two in when my brother went down. We were up last night and only saw one but another guy said he saw 3 at the area so fingers crossed if the second owl that got out was still learning, when we saw him hobbling along,maybe he just hadn't found his flight yet. We could hear a young one last night too so I'm just hoping the parent who was still feeding, came back and gathered them up. I'm assuming they will sleep in the trees in the nature reserve tho. But the one we seen came from the box at the edge (with no sides on it) so maybe it was resting in there. Animals especially birds will be the death of us.