‘Angry birds..’!

Tawny owls have adopted a nest box above the stumpery.

They’ve been active during the dark hours, we frequently hear their calls.

Juvenile tawny owls May 2021

They are very site-faithful, returning to nest sites or territories they were born in, so the probability is that these birds parents are locals, if not indeed ‘our own’.

All populations (with the possible exception of humans!) are affected by the carrying capacity of an environment. This is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. Tawnies locally have probably reached that. Ain’t no point breeding each year if your local area can’t support any more. They last bred here in 2021.

Tawnies can live to thirty years and so don’t need to breed each year to replenish their numbers. We’ve had a few fallow years since our last successful brood was reared.

So , watching them at the nest box on the day of our RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch was a real thrill. In early summer we love to see their fluffy young emerge and their persistent calls from dusk will always be associated for us with our time here.

Small birds, however, are not so impressed! They are your archetypal NIMBY’s and typically mob tawnies that they can find. Tawny owls are opportunistic feeders and will take as many plump young birds as they can catch. Our bat group friends were also less-than-impressed by the new residents. Tawny owls will catch bats and having recently sited twenty bat nursery boxes in the vicinity of the tawnies new home, I can understand their knitted eyebrows.

The local tit population organised a ‘welcoming committee’ this week as the video shows. Our little granddaughter described them as ‘angry birds’. I think she nailed it!