No Need To Worry

Yesterday evening I was going to write a post entitled "Casualty of the Heatwave" but then the "casualty" showed signs of life. Perhaps I better explain.

In the Spring our resident barn owl found himself a mate. There was little activity for several weeks but eventually we thought we heard a faint "shooshing" noise which we knew was the cry of hungry owlets. As time went on we deduced that there was probably only one baby in the nest as the noise did not increase. All seemed to be progressing in accordance with the information posted on line regarding barn owl breeding habits. We regularly saw the male go off in search of food and we think we saw the female once. However this week we heard no "shooshing" from baby. We both feared that it had succumbed to the incessant high temperatures. We know how hot it is in our loft so goodness knows how hot it is in the top of the pigeonier  with no insulation.

However we were delighted late yesterday evening to hear the owlet demanding food and we saw "Dad" responding by setting off  to hunt.

Fingers crossed that the owlet will fledge and that we can get some photos....we have a better camera now than the last time they bred.