Barn Owlets get leg rings

Our Reserve Team were watching the barn owls boxes again this June and thought there were chicks inside one.

Early morning on Friday 4 July the Reserve Team checked the owl box with a Licensed ringer to discover 3 barn owlets. The owlets were rung with BTO leg rings, DARVIC bands, and colour rings. Turns out the fluffy bundles are two males and a female.

Our Reserve Wardens Suzi, Abbie and Hannah have named the owlet trio after the letters on their new DARVIC bands, ALFie, ALDo and CLAire (who was ALC). The gorgeous owlets are estimated to be 39-45 days old.

The Reserve Team wardens did a barn owl nest box check at the end of June which revealed three nearly fledged owlets and one much younger downy chick. In previous years we have only seen a maximum of three barn owlets. This nest box check requires climbing a very tall pole using a very tall ladder, which is taken across to the owl box island on a boat.

On July 4th the Team went back to ring the owlets. Barn owls are Schedule 1 birds that are checked and ringed at WWT Arundel under license. The Wardens discovered that the smaller chick had disappeared, likely eaten by older siblings (which is common). One of the older birds had already fledged and left the box but two were ringed. These two female owlets received regular BTO rings plus new colour rings as part of a new project. When you are next owl watching, look for red leg rings marked AFK and AFL to check if they are our Arundel barn owls.

There are always owls at WWT Arundel Wetland Centre. In autumn and winter we see the whitewash of barn owls, revealing where they have been hunting from in the rafters of our hides. We also hear tawny owls calling while staff leave at days end. In winter we often see barn owls flying off to hunt, on overcast afternoons when the days are shorter. In spring and summer we are sometimes treated to views of young owlets - like this year!

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