Blue House Farm Barn Owls 2020 (C) Essex Wildlife Trust

Hi Ann
Am sure Sandra will answer,as I know she has actually visited...

Hi Ann and Kate,

Kate is correct as I did pay a visit there a few years ago. Blue House Farm is in North Fambridge, it's a beautiful area

The webcam box is situated inside a barn on a working farm run by Essex Wildlife Trust. The barn is in use quite regularly so the BOs are used to the comings and goings of staff/machinery

Top right arrow shows the BO's entrance/exit to the barn; The arrow on the left points to a screen showing the live webcam images

Thanks, Sandra and Kate. Do you live near there, Sandra? We have not visited the farm although I hope to one day. We have been in the area many times and actually have been very briefly to Fambridge (not sure which one); we took five minutes and walked down to the river, but had to leave promptly--expected at the in-laws' who live not far away. It is a beautiful area and when driving around, we had commented about how the roadside hedges and trees in some areas were tall enough to force Barn Owls to fly across the road at a safe height (we saw one doing that), while in other places in the area the roadside foliage is lower and birds like Barn Owls might be in trouble crossing those roads since they tend to fly very low. That does worry me about the Owls at this nest, but with any luck, the Blue House Farm Barn Owls do not need to fly over roads but can find enough prey on the farm, fingers crossed.

Hi Ann.
I live around 60 miles away so not local at all. There is a lot of rough grassland so an ideal habitat for BOs (and small critters) and when we visited (EWT had arranged an Owl Prowl event) actually saw the male catch prey and fly back to the barn. If I can remember correctly, there were a couple of youngsters in the box at the time. There are other boxes that have been erected, and used, around the farm so perhaps the webcam BOs had taken advantage of one of those earlier this year. Hopefully, when things get back to some 'normality', EWT will once again organise more events - well worth having the tour!

Thanks Sandra,
always lovely to have a perspective of the area cams situated,and lovely that our Farmers,

do so much ,to help Nature,in so many ways.

Unfortunately, Sandra, we will not be visiting Essex in person until there is a vaccine, not wanting to stop at motorway services mid-journey and risk exposure from unknown passing folk. We are almost exactly the same distance from central London as that part of Essex is but on the complete opposite side of London, and can choose the northerly or southerly route around the metropolis as we please. But unfortunately the distance is just a smidgen too long to ensure doing it all in one go most of the time, not to mention not wishing to spend our entire visit outdoors in mid-winter! I expect this Christmas we will have online visits with all of the relatives, there and elsewhere.

Absolutely right, Ann.

6.12.20
One resting in the box

It's the female

Male has joined her 23:04

Missed her leaving the box