I am told that there is a albino buzzard around here, must go and look
for it, will make a change from Jackdaws :-)

kate

Forest of Dean. Glos.

I am told that there is a albino buzzard around here, must go and look
for it, will make a change from Jackdaws :-)

kate

Forest of Dean. Glos.

Sorry folks this should have gone to birdwatching although I think that
many gardeners are birdwatchers too :-)

kate

On 8/11/05 22:26, in article , "Kate
Morgan" wrote:


I am told that there is a albino buzzard around here, must go and look
for it, will make a change from Jackdaws :-)

kate

Forest of Dean. Glos.

Sorry folks this should have gone to birdwatching although I think that
many gardeners are birdwatchers too :-)

An inevitable and delightful corollary, IME. Over the six or seven years
I've known this place, I've seen some considerable changes in bird life and
one of them was some huge screeching noise in the wee small hours about four
nights ago. Ray didn't hear it but it frightened the hell out of me! I
imagine a barn owl? We get Little Owls here but this is a new event and
makes us wonder if it will drive the Little Owls away. Certainly, their
visits are few and far between now and that really does upset me because
that lovely, daft, hoo hoo thing of theirs in the middle of the afternoon is
truly beguiling.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message
from Kate Morgan contains these words:


I am told that there is a albino buzzard around here, must go and look
for it, will make a change from Jackdaws :-)

Interesting. I've sometimes seen young albino (or part albino) birds
of other species, but they never last long; too easily spotted by
sparrowhawks etc. An albino buzzard , being much larger and stronger,
should have a longer lifespan :-)

Yesterday while we had breakfast, we watched a buzzard kill a hare in
the field next door. Its mate and their chicks (two hulking teenagers,
as big as the parents but not as dark yet) zoomed in and pranced around
on the ground waiting to share the feast. Eventually, the youngsters
managed to grab a bit and dropped it into dense gorse behind a wire
sheep-fence. They got into so much hysterical trouble trapped behind
the fence scrabbling for their lost treasure,, I had to go and fish it
out before they damaged themselves. It was the two back feet of the
hare, connected by a very long sinewy strip :-(

Janet

"Sacha" wrote
An inevitable and delightful corollary, IME. Over the six or seven years
I've known this place, I've seen some considerable changes in bird life
and one of them was some huge screeching noise in the wee small hours
about four nights ago. Ray didn't hear it but it frightened the hell out
of me! I imagine a barn owl? We get Little Owls here but this is a new
event and makes us wonder if it will drive the Little Owls away.
Certainly, their visits are few and far between now and that really does
upset me because that lovely, daft, hoo hoo thing of theirs in the middle
of the afternoon is truly beguiling.

Ah just what I wanted to know! I sometimes hear the screeching owl-calls
at night around here, but this afternoon there were a couple of those
ghostly hoo-hooing calls and I was wondering what sort of owl might be
abroad at that time of day.

--
Sue

On 9/11/05 16:11, in article
, "Sue"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote
An inevitable and delightful corollary, IME. Over the six or seven years
I've known this place, I've seen some considerable changes in bird life
and one of them was some huge screeching noise in the wee small hours
about four nights ago. Ray didn't hear it but it frightened the hell out
of me! I imagine a barn owl? We get Little Owls here but this is a new
event and makes us wonder if it will drive the Little Owls away.
Certainly, their visits are few and far between now and that really does
upset me because that lovely, daft, hoo hoo thing of theirs in the middle
of the afternoon is truly beguiling.

Ah just what I wanted to know! I sometimes hear the screeching owl-calls
at night around here, but this afternoon there were a couple of those
ghostly hoo-hooing calls and I was wondering what sort of owl might be
abroad at that time of day.

Humph - well I hope you haven't got ours. ;-) I love them but they haven't
been around that much this year, while the screeching type is new to this
garden and normally lives about a mile away, we think.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message
from Malcolm contains these words:

An inevitable and delightful corollary, IME. Over the six or seven years
I've known this place, I've seen some considerable changes in bird life and
one of them was some huge screeching noise in the wee small hours
about four
nights ago. Ray didn't hear it but it frightened the hell out of me! I
imagine a barn owl? We get Little Owls here but this is a new event and
makes us wonder if it will drive the Little Owls away. Certainly, their
visits are few and far between now and that really does upset me because
that lovely, daft, hoo hoo thing of theirs in the middle of the
afternoon is
truly beguiling.

I don't think there is much evidence for competition between the two.
There isn't for food, though there just might be for nest sites. Putting
up some boxes would solve that, anyway.

Generally, little owls and barn owls don't compete for nesting sites,
though a little owl might not want to establish one if a barn owl is
nesting nearby.

When I had the smallholding, I had two pairs of barn owls and a kestrel
nesting in different buildings. I never saw a little owl there, but
there are some round here.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On 9/11/05 17:59, in article , "Malcolm"
wrote:


In article , Sacha
writes
On 8/11/05 22:26, in article , "Kate
Morgan" wrote:


I am told that there is a albino buzzard around here, must go and look
for it, will make a change from Jackdaws :-)

kate

Forest of Dean. Glos.

Sorry folks this should have gone to birdwatching although I think that
many gardeners are birdwatchers too :-)

An inevitable and delightful corollary, IME. Over the six or seven years
I've known this place, I've seen some considerable changes in bird life and
one of them was some huge screeching noise in the wee small hours about four
nights ago. Ray didn't hear it but it frightened the hell out of me! I
imagine a barn owl? We get Little Owls here but this is a new event and
makes us wonder if it will drive the Little Owls away. Certainly, their
visits are few and far between now and that really does upset me because
that lovely, daft, hoo hoo thing of theirs in the middle of the afternoon is
truly beguiling.

I don't think there is much evidence for competition between the two.
There isn't for food, though there just might be for nest sites. Putting
up some boxes would solve that, anyway.

Thanks, I'll do that. We're not at all sure where the Little Owls nest but
we have a lot of trees in our garden and bordering the lanes and fields
around us, so it could be anywhere around here. A plantation about a mile
away is thought to be the home of the Barn Owls.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

Thanks, I'll do that. We're not at all sure where the Little Owls nest but
we have a lot of trees in our garden and bordering the lanes and fields
around us, so it could be anywhere around here. A plantation about a mile
away is thought to be the home of the Barn Owls.

Heaven knows what barn owls did before barns, but that's their preferred
type of site. I had one nesting in the vent at the top of my red brick
threshing barn, and another in the cart store on the other side of the
holding.

Little owls like cavities which are accessible via a hole, such as
hollow trees, and even burrows.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On 10/11/05 12:22, in article
, "Jaques d'Alltrades"
wrote:

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

Thanks, I'll do that. We're not at all sure where the Little Owls nest but
we have a lot of trees in our garden and bordering the lanes and fields
around us, so it could be anywhere around here. A plantation about a mile
away is thought to be the home of the Barn Owls.

Heaven knows what barn owls did before barns, but that's their preferred
type of site. I had one nesting in the vent at the top of my red brick
threshing barn, and another in the cart store on the other side of the
holding.

Little owls like cavities which are accessible via a hole, such as
hollow trees, and even burrows.

Burrows?! I had no idea they might ground nest so all the more reason to
keep an eye on the digging dogs!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

Little owls like cavities which are accessible via a hole, such as
hollow trees, and even burrows.

Burrows?! I had no idea they might ground nest so all the more reason to
keep an eye on the digging dogs!

Yes, but if elevated nooks and crannies can be had, they are unlikely to
choose a burrow.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Malcolm wrote:
And buildings of all kinds, but they do use some natural sites,
including the following which I've found: hollow trees, or hollow
branches, small caves in inland and coastal cliffs, and even in the
space left by an upturned tree.

We've just finished doing our loft a couple of weeks ago and I got
concerned we wouldn't be visited by the owls anymore. We're still
unsure exactly where they nested, because we found lots of bits, bones,
feathers in a minute little space. It's amazing the tiny space they
use! They were not there last year, at least I didn't hear them, but
the year before I could here them coming in and out but hooting loud
and clear. I think they'll come back because we've left 1.5m width from
our first partition wall and the insulation walls. I wanted to put up
boxes but we thought we'd give them instead the whole run of the roof
edges )

"Malcolm" wrote
Sue writes
Ah just what I wanted to know! I sometimes hear the screeching owl-calls
at night around here, but this afternoon there were a couple of those
ghostly hoo-hooing calls and I was wondering what sort of owl might be
abroad at that time of day.

It's the Tawny Owl that hoo-hoos - and tu-whits. They start doing it in
August and carry on for months - pairing up and defining territories.

I do hope my garden will be in their territory then. The rough grass in the
'wild' end seems to have lots of little inhabitants that go squeak in the
night, so might attract them. Thanks for the info.

--
Sue

The message .com
from "La puce" contains these words:

We've just finished doing our loft a couple of weeks ago and I got
concerned we wouldn't be visited by the owls anymore. We're still
unsure exactly where they nested, because we found lots of bits, bones,
feathers in a minute little space. It's amazing the tiny space they
use! They were not there last year, at least I didn't hear them, but
the year before I could here them coming in and out but hooting loud
and clear. I think they'll come back because we've left 1.5m width from
our first partition wall and the insulation walls. I wanted to put up
boxes but we thought we'd give them instead the whole run of the roof
edges )

If you put up a ½m × ½m platform with a lip of something like 1" × 1½"
(sorry to mix systems) and they do get in, they'll like that, especially
if it's near the peak on a gable-end.

*SOME* light is necessary though: they are unlikely to nest in total darkness.

--
Rusty
horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On 10/11/05 14:22, in article
, "Jaques d'Alltrades"
wrote:

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

Little owls like cavities which are accessible via a hole, such as
hollow trees, and even burrows.

Burrows?! I had no idea they might ground nest so all the more reason to
keep an eye on the digging dogs!

Yes, but if elevated nooks and crannies can be had, they are unlikely to
choose a burrow.

Plenty of nooks and crannies round here, I'd think, so hopefully that's what
they'll do. We sometimes hear the parent birds calling from across the
fields to the young sitting in or near our garden. But what we don't know
is if the parents are calling from their roost or just encouraging the young
to forage with them.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)