Tawny Owl Nest Box Diary 2022 (+30 days onwards)

This is probably one of the two Tawny Owls whose nesting experience we have been following over the past 30 days since the first eggs were laid. (Photo taken from my balcony, about twenty feet away from the perch.)

read Tawny Owl Nest Box Diary 2022 (Jan to April - part 1) to bring you up to date 
 

This will be a diary of their experiences until they branch or fledge (hopefully!), updated daily (almost)....

10th/11the April

Another dry but sometimes cloudy and cold day - Infra red light active at 19:16

20:43 - Female leaves the nest box…..As she leaves the nest box and goes where she has started to go, that is the canopy, there seems to be another pair of eyes following in her footsteps…..Unfortunately it’s all off camera!

21:00 - female flies back to nest box. She comes onto the Ride but very near to the box, through the trees. Then settles.

21:11 - male flies in from the wood to the west and lands on the long branch….

21:13 - Female leaves the nest and swoops to join the male on the long branch…Yet again, she snatches the food from the male and yet again he does a runner, sharpish!

21:14 - she stays there for 30 seconds or so then swoops down off the long branch towards the Ride tree camera and heads straight for the woods to the West.

21:15 - The male arrives at the nest. Stays around a couple of minutes before heading off to the East, down the Ride.

21:19 - the Female arrives back on the nest and within seconds she’s back on the eggs and settled.

00:01 - Owl arrives above the nest Box - 00:02 - Flies off to the East

01:45 - Female leaves the nest again….and flies North up the Ride.

01:53 - Female flies down the Ride through the trees to land on the box and settle on the eggs again.

05:05 - Female leaves the nest - swoops down hard and fast and low….heading up the Ride to the North

05:15 - Female flies back in from the North.

06:52 - lost the infra red.

11th/12th April

Another semi sunny day - but still cold….

Infra red came on at 18:22

20:28 the female starts to get fidgety and starts looking up to the camera.

20:29 - Unusually, the male comes in from the West and lands on a branch to the left of the box and then hops onto the lip and drops straight down with the prey to the female. He has the rat in his mouth.

20:31 - the male flies off to the East, down the Ride.

20:35 - the female finishes the food. (Rat)

23:36 - Female leaves nest, two eggs still visible. As usual, she turns North and heads up the Ride climbing into the canopy of the Ride camera tree again. 

23:54 - Female reverses her course and returns from the North to the nest, she jumps straight in and settles.

03:42 - Female leaves the nest once more and repeats her flight from last time, landing in the canopy.

03:51 - Female returns and settles again.

Infra red light goes out at 07:08.  Another more or less dry night and not as cold as the last few nights.

12th/13th April.

A rainy day forecast, all day, quite heavy from 15:00 onwards, but temperatures just into the double figures, and just below 10 at midnight.

20:53 - Male brings in a mouse for the Female. Sits atop the next box for a few seconds before dropping down and swapping the food. He stays in the box with the female for a good minute or so before climbing out.

20:54 - Male flies down the Ride to the East.

20:55 - Female finally swallows the Mouse.

00:01 - Female leaves the nest box, leaving two eggs still on the floor of the box. She heads off North, down the Ride flies past the long branch near the lodge and soars up to the canopy. As she has been doing these past two or three nights. 

00:11 - Owl appears from around the same area as the female landed but this one came from lower down and flew to the long branch near the lodge.

00:12 - The owl swoops down the Ride and lands on the box.

00:15 - Owl flies off to the East, down the Ride.

00:28 - Female lands on the box again from the North. She eventually drops on the eggs 30 seconds later.

04:55: Female seems aware of the male being around.

04:57 Male lands on the long branch near the Lodge, coming in from the West through the trees.

04:58 - Female leaves the box and swoops up the Ride to land on the long branch. The male offers her what looks like a mole and she snatches it for him. The male flies straight to the Ride camera tree and lands just above the camera. 

04:59 - The female jumps across the gap and lands in the same tree as the male. A few seconds later, the male swoops up the Ride to the North going at speed.

05:16 - Female lands on the box, flying in from the North, down the Ride again.

05:17 - The eggs show some sign that the chicks might be coming!

The Patch of white is where some of the shell has come away.....

05:18 - She drops down onto the eggs

07:56: 22 she seems to go from settled to animated.

07:57:41 - first glimpse of egg with a hole in it. But thats not the one she seems to be working on….

Extreme close up so the definition is not great but the open egg is easy to see...

07:57:15 - first glimpse of chick but still in the shell.

07:58:45 - she seems to settle on them for a while.

13th/14th April

20:52 - Male arrives on the box.

20:54 - Male flies off to the East down the Ride.

20:55 - Female leaves the nest - showing two eggs!….

Well I don’t know what’s happening in there!  Those two eggs look remarkable whole! - and yet we saw the footage yesterday, unless what we saw was some kind of optical illusion!  All we can do it carry on waiting and see what happens.

21:09 - Male arrives on the branch in front of the camera on the nest box - seems to be carrying a mole….picture!

21:11 - Male flies over to the nest box but the female isn’t here…..                

21:13 - Male drops into the box with the mole. He’s never done that before when the female is not there. He stands looking at the eggs, turning his head to the left then the right as if he’s offering the chicks the food. I’m presuming that he might be able to hear them. After a while, he eats the mole then rises to the top of the box and flies off up the Ride to the North. (see video below)

21:19 - Female flies in from the N. West through the trees and lands on the box. Drops down to the eggs and settles again.

22:56 - Owl comes flying in fast from the North and lands on the long branch.

22:58 - Owl flies off towards the nest box tree.

23:00 - Owl flies onto the branch where the camera is in the nest box tree - Female is aware he’s there.

23:03 - Owl flies off to the South, towards the field next door.

00:19 - Female leaves the nest. She flies off to the North and heads through the trees

00:26 - Female flies back and settles on the eggs.

03:05 - Female leaves the nest box and heads North but through the trees

03:18 - Female returns as before….

04:23 - Female leaves, again!…..but this time heads up into the canopy up the ride to the North

04:33 - She returns to the box from the North….. and settles

Hopefully at some stage she has eaten during the night....

14th/15th April.

A lot warmer day today with lots of sun and little breeze.

20:29 - Male flies in from the west through the trees right by the nest box, carrying prey..... yet another rat. Male drops into box for the food passover. He stays in the box with her for nearly a couple of minutes. Then climbs out and stands on the edge of the box for another couple of minutes. Both of these behaviours is a little unusual for him as he usually dashes off straight away after a quick pass over of food.

20:34 - Male flies down to the ground then disappears….

21:04 - Female leaves the nest box and Leaves two eggs still! She flies off up the Ride and into the trees.

21:14 - She returns to the nest from the North and quickly settles on the eggs.

21:30 - Female leaves the nest box again…. Flying up the Ride to the North but keeps going past the Lodge and veers off to the West, heading for the woods.

21:39 - She returns to the nest , breaking into the Ride from the West through the trees. Looks out from the opening for 30 seconds before dropping and settling onto the eggs.

22:13 - Female is off again! - There is a lot of calling tonight which can be heard from the Lodge, so maybe this is unsettling her. Unusually, she sits on the edge of the box looking around for nearly 30 seconds before flying off at 22:14. She doesn’t fly past the Lodge this time so she’s headed through the trees, near the Nest Box and over to the woods again.

22:23 - She’s back. Once again through the trees just up from the nest box and again seems to be flying in from the wood. She’s straight into the box, pulls the eggs towards her and settles again.

23:18 - Male arrives with another rat, coming in from the North East, over the water. Female is aware that he’s around for a minute before he gets there. He tries to do a shallow pass over of the food to the female, but fails and drops into the box. Male tried to get out of the box a couple of times but failed. He rested for 30 seconds or so and tried again….. making it this time!

23:20 - Male flies off. Female had eaten the food before the male had flown off.

03:23 - Male flies in from the West through the trees and lands on the long branch near the Lodge with food. 30 seconds later, the female looks agitated, looking up to the opening. 

Female is fiddling with the eggs and looking up to the opening

03:27 - Fiddling with eggs again and then at

03:28 - She leaves the nest and flies to the long branch where she takes a rodent from him. He jumps up to a higher branch out of sight and after a few seconds she flies across to the Ride camera tree.

03:46 - Female arrives back at the nest box from the trees. Drops down and quickly settles. 

05:08 - Female leaves the box again for the fifth time! - Flying towards the N.W. up the ride.

05:16 - Female is back, drops into the box, spins round in a circle whilst messing with the eggs and then settles…..

She settle down for the day, spinning occasionally..... Three meals for the Female today. She must have been hungry....

15th/16th April

Another nice day - quite warm and no wind.

21:08  - Female leaves the nest…..Only one egg now!  Sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, she got rid of another egg.

She flies up the Ride to the North and rises to the canopy of the Ride camera tree.

21:18 - Male pops up onto the branch in front of the nest box tree camera. After a minute of looking at the nest box,  he flies over to land on the opening and stares down at the single egg in the bottom. After 30 seconds or so, he drops down and stares at the egg with his head moving from side to side, then he moves the egg a little and stares again at the egg for a while. I’ve never seen the male do this before. The male did this two days ago, but not for as long.

21:25 he climbs out and sits on the opening for a few seconds before jumping up onto a higher branch.

21:27 Male flies away to the North.

21:30 - Female arrives back at the nest box. Stares down at the egg for a few seconds then settles.

21:35 - Female leaves again going up the Ride.

21:40 - Female is back at the nest box, again down the Ride. She settles straight away.

Exactly on ​​​​​Midnight.....

Nice little diversion for a couple of minutes!

00:33 - Female is off again. She flies as if heading up the Ride to the North as she has done all night, but I cant see her coming up the Ride on the other cameras. So I can only presume she is heading over to the woods to the west.

00:41 - Female arrives back on the box. Again, she comes in from the north but not down the Ride. She must be coming in through the trees.

01:30 - She is off again - again to the North.

01:43 - She’s back, again from the North.

01:45 - She’s off again! Heading North.

01:47 - She’s back from the same general direction.

01:50 - She climbs up to the opening, stays there for 30 seconds looking around, then turns and drops back down.

03:16 - She is off again, to the North.

03:23 - Female is back.

04:14 - Male appears, sitting in a tree near the Ride camera tree.

04:15 - Male appears in front of the Camera on the nest box tree, looking around.

04:17 - Male flies off to the South.

04:36 - Female flies off and lands on the long branch near to the Lodge.

04:37 - Male lands on the nest box. Seems to have just appeared from low down.

04:37 - Female flies off the long branch through the trees to the West

04:39 - Male stays on the box opening and looks around before Swooping off up the Ride at speed and to the North.

04:52 - Females headlights can be seen in the Ride camera tree. Then she flies over to the nest box. Drops down and settles.

05:10 - Female leaves the nest and flies off to the North and into/past the Ride camera tree.

05:14 - Female lands on the Box. Turns round a couple of times and looks in for a few seconds before flying off. Then flies back to the box, jumps down and settles.

I suppose we will have to wait and see what the days brings - but personally I have a feeling that in the next 24 hours the last egg will disappear...... Time will tell.

16th /17th April

20:56 - The female leaves the nest box and reveals that she has disposed of one egg (the third)  during the day…. Disappointing to say the least!.....

She leaves the nest box! Heading North up the drive….

21:09 - Female returns and settles!

23:55 - Female leaves the nest box - heading North

00:09 - Female returns from the North….. She jumps straight down into the box.

0024 - Male arrives on the long branch…..

00:26 - Owl is walking up and down the Long branch…..

00:28 - Owl disappears….

00:29 - Male shows up on the branch in front of the nest box camera. 

00:31 - Owl flies away…..

01:55 - Female leaves the nest box and flies North, then through or into the trees.

02:06 - Female is back.

04:24 - Female leaves.

04:36 - Female arrives back, through the trees again.

04:39 - Male arrives on the long branch near the Lodge waits for a minute for the female to join him. She doesn’t, so he flies to the branch above the nest box and a few seconds later drops onto the box and down to pass over the prey.

Male struggles to get out of the box and has to rest for thirty seconds or so before attempting again. 

04:42 - he gets to the top and flies off to the South, towards the field.

17th/18th April.

Not too bad a day today - quite warm and sunny.

20:51 - Female leaves the nest and flies North to or through the trees.

21:01 - Female arrives back and sits on the ledge for a minute before dropping down. It’s started to rain.

23:13 - Male arrives on the nest box camera branch from the West and he’s carrying a mole. He doesn’t drop down into the box but does a shallow passover of the Mole.

23:14 - Male leaves and flies onto the long branch near the Lodge.

23:21 - He flies off through the trees to the West.

01:20 - Female leaves the Nest Box and flies off towards the North, presumably into the trees again, or through them.

01:40 - Female arrives back from the North.

04:24 - Female leaves the nest box again and flies to the North.

04:33 - Female arrives from the North again. 

18th/19th April.

A very nice and warm day today…

17:44 - (quite early, as its going to be daylight for another three and a half hours yet) the Female climbed up to the edge of the opening and revealed that there were NO EGGS left in the box.

Immediately going back over the footage, it very much looks like she cleared the egg away at around 09:00 in the morning. Waiting all day for darkness to come.

18:09 - She drops back down into the box.

18:25 - She’s back up on the opening again. - She’s causing quite a stir with the local birds….Corvids especially.

She sits there looking round until 18:40 when she flies off towards the woods to the West.

20:01 - (Still light) an owl flies up to the box from low down but can’t tell which direction. Again, local blackbirds are flitting around the nest box where it is perched.

20:33 - Just as the sun drops behind the hills, the owl jumps up to the branch above the box.

20:37 - She flies up the Ride but through the branches to another tree where she perches.

22:32 - Male shows up on the Nest box camera branch with a smallish rat. He sits there for a couple of minutes before flying up to the opening.

22:34 - From now til 22:38 he sits on the box opening looking around and at times looking down into the box.

22:38 - He drops down into the box and sits looking at the place where the eggs used to be, still with the rat in his mouth.

22:40 - Still with the prey in his mouth, he climbs up to the edge of the box and sits for a while before flying off to the South West. I think he has just landed on a branch off camera.

It appears that no-one told him there were no eggs anymore!.

03:19 - Owl flies in from the West and lands near to the Nest Box tree Camera. It looks around in all directions and looks at the box a few times.

03:21 - Owl flies off to the East.

19th/20th April.

21:47 - Owl arrives on the branch above the nest box. A place where the male usually sits with prey before going to the box. Two minutes later it jumps down to the box and sits on the opening.

Is this our Male?…. is it our female?…. or is it the other owl that we’ve seen on a few occasions?  

It is difficult to tell with nothing for scale but I think this is Female.

21:49 - Owl seems to be attracted to something on the floor and flies dow.towards the hedgerow.

20th/21st April.

21:10 Owl arrives from the West coming up through the nest box tree to settle on the nest box opening. It looks from the size like it could possibly be a female.

21:12 - Owl flies away but it’s hard to tell which direction? 

21st April.

We feel very different now at the end of this blog than we did at the start of it!  To say we are disappointed is an understatement. We were so looking forward to seeing the chick's antics as they grew, eventually leaving the box and "branching" out into the tree before they fledged.

Whilst we weren't, by any means, expecting to have all four chicks to entertain us, we always thought that we would lose a couple of chicks on the way as either food became a bit harder to find or the "runt" of the chicks fell by the wayside.....

..... but to loose all four is a bit of a blow, even for us!  

So perhaps we should spare a thought for the mum and dad for a few seconds..... We know that everyone just says "thats nature for you", but I will always remember, that after the female had "lost" an egg, when the male next came in with food, when he dropped down into the box for the passover, he stayed there for a longer period of time than he normally did and had his arm around her for quite a while before leaving to hunt again. Check out the video.

Now who says they dont have feelings! - remember unlike many of us humans..... these beautiful wild creatures mate for life.

I will keep monitoring the nest box camera and the camera in the nest box tree as I do throughout the year and if anything develops I will update this,  or post another blog.   

In the mean time the other cameras will be re-located to other areas to monitor the Kingfishers; Kestrels; Moorhens; Ducks and Geese and we'll obviously keep our eyes open for the Hares, the Deer and any other critters that are around

So keep looking at the blog landing page for any other storylines!