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Two years ago I was given an owl chimney nest box for christmas and every body laughed! Determined to see if it could work despite looking totally unsuitable for anything to nest in, let alone a tawny owl my husband put it up on an old sycamore at the edge of a narrow strip of woodland along side the railway at the edge of our property. Nothing the first year and no sign of activity this year eiither but some very strange behaviour from the blackbirds the whole of May Day bank holiday when I was out constructing a new bog garden. The blackbirds and other small birds kept up a constant alarm call ALL weekend and I couldn't find a cat or a fox in the area at all - mistery!
All became clear when on 16th May we went to shut the chickens up just after dusk; my husband bent down to investigate what he thought looked like a shaggy ink-cap fungus ( totally wrong time of year, hence the investigation) and called me over to look. There on the ground next to the water butt was a grey ball of fluff. Fortunately we had the camera and took a few shots. We soon realised form the formidable beakand completely black eyes that it was a tawny owl chick and after a short discussion decided to lift it out of the hen run incase parents could get in to feed it or it couldn't get out. I was wearing gloves so I picked it up and put it on top of a post and as I did so an adult owl flew past very slose, clicking its beak in reply to the already beak clicking youngster! The adult landed close by in another big sycamore and and we beat a hasty retreat as the chick launched itself off the post into the undergrowth.
We were in shock at the closeness of the encounter and didn't stay around to see how the youngster fared which I now regret but thankfully that wasn't then end of the story. The next evevning we were down there again and heard two youngsters calling! Throughout the summer we listened and on ocassions watched as the babies were fed by both parents and they explored the small strip of woodland. We had lots of really good sightings and more often listened to the young calling right through to the early autumn.
Hi Celia and welcome to the forum. That is a lovely story - I'll bet, like most of us at such times, you now wish you had taken just a few photos!
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Wow! What a fantastic nest box success!! How wonderful to have owls to close like it! Thanks for sharing! Oh, and welcome to the forum!! :-)
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
My photos on Flickr