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Hello Roy,
We’ve had two occurrences of Little Owls breeding in our nestboxes this season.
One nesting site is specifically a Little Owl nestbox. The design we utilised was the simplified Little Owl nestbox design of the Hawk and Owl Trust. We did not employ the more complicated Little Owl box design with the long diamond shape tunnel with the ‘drop into’ nesting chamber at the end. We felt the design to be too complicated and expensive to build. Hence we opted for the simpler design. The details of the site are as follows –
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Erected 4th March 2000 in Ash Tree within overgrown hawthorn hedge at height of 1.8m
First occurrence of a Little Owl breeding at this site was in 2000
No egg observations in 2002 due to monitoring work on other species (Barn Owls)
Observation date 22nd June 2002. 1 Little Owl young in nestbox. Clean and healthy owlet. Probably last of the brood to leave. Owlet 'tongue clicked' during observation. Estimate 4 to 5 weeks old.
The other Little Owl nesting site was in a wooden Barn Owl nestbox to the design described under the discussion topic titled ‘Wood Preservatives’ posted 4/16/2002 and 4/23/2002. (See also discussion topic titled ‘Outdoor Nestbox Designs’). The details of this site are given below –
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Erected January 1999 in isolated Hawthorn at height of 1.8m
This is first occurrence of a Little Owl breeding at this site
Observation date 4th May 2002. No egg observations possible due female Little Owl remaining in place on nest area in box.
Observation date 22nd June 2002. No infertile eggs seen in nest box. 3 young Little Owls in nestbox. All young clean and healthy. Estimate eldest owlet to be 3 weeks old (?)
We will visit the sites again in the autumn to clean out the nestboxes and put fresh wood shavings on the nestbox floor. We will inspect the nest debris to ascertain whether any young failed to fledge (ie. look for owlet remains, skulls etc).
Sorry about the gaps in the Little Owl breeding info above but we were more or less fully occupied monitoring our Barn Owl nestboxes this season.
If you require more details of the Little Owl nest sites described above (OS grid references, nestbox orientation, habitat etc.) please get in touch with us and we’ll send the info to you via e-mail.
We have photo’s of the 3 owlets in the wooden nestbox which shows the nestbox design quite well and the habitat it is sited in. If you wish we’ll ‘burn’ you a CD of these photographs for your information. Please forward a mailing address if you think the CD will be useful.
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