For any of you who watched BBC Springwatch this year from our RSPB Minsmere reserve, you would no doubt have seen the tawny owl (Strix aluco) chick in the tree that they had a camera on and marvelled at the variety of items that it was fed by the adults.
While not a peatland species, we do have tawny owls at Forsinard in the strath (valley). Tawny owls are normally found in woodland habitats and predominantly broadleaved woods, although they are also found in conifer plantations, parks and gardens as well as being present in open and urban areas.
They normally nest in holes in isolated trees or hedges, although in the absence of suitable nesting sites they can be found on the ground at the base of a tress, especially in coniferous woods.
Often heard at night around the Farm at Forsinard, it was with surprise and pleasure that we came across a ground nesting pair out on the reserve and while warden staff monitored the nest site over several weeks we managed to place a remote camera trap near the nest site.
Tawny owls usually lay 2-3 eggs generally at intervals of 48hours and they hatch asynchronously so that young are slightly different sizes, with the oldest normally the most likely to survive. We had three young at our nest, with all three looking very healthy and at good sizes. We visited them on three occasions and then relied on the camera trap to provide us with updates. We had several lovely images of the adults bring in food and of the youngsters wandering around before two of them vanished from the range of the camera.
Adult with food during the day; but then daylight hours up north are very long in the summer!
Night shot of adult and three owlets huddled in the corner
On the final visit we confirmed that there was only one young owl left at the nest site, but no need to panic as prior to fledging most young owls spend a period on the ground, but soon become adept at climbing and move up into surrounding trees and bushes. Although, in the case of one of our youngsters it managed to make it to the roof of an old building nearby! We cannot be sure, but there is a very good chance that all three went on to fledge and will be terrorising the local vole population in the dark of the night!