Looking for the Owl Channel Blog? Click below please for the new location !: 12/30 to 12/31

Saturday, December 31, 2011

12/30 to 12/31

17:32 Roy returns to the Hideout
17:45 Dale returns to the Hideout
18:55 Roy flies off
19:05 Mystery owl lands on HP
19:36 Roy lands in tree
19:46 Dale joins Roy in tree
19:47 Dale lands on porch
19:48 Dale and Roy inside box
Major allopreening/kiss-fest ensues for what seems like six hours but....
22:29 bonding
23:43 Roy flies off
23:44 Roy realizes he can't live without Dale's kisses and returns
23:52 Dale and Roy both fly off
00:10 Dale and Roy both return
00:42 Dale and Roy both fly off (attached by Velcro it seems)
01:11 Roy returns, soaking wringing wet (smacking beak, like he had a nice
meal)
01:19 Dale returns (smacking beak, like she had a nice meal)
02:50 Roy flies off
02:51 Dale flies off
03:00 Dale and Roy return
03:05 Roy flies off
03:06 Dale flies off

http://www.flickr.com/photos/litlvxn/sets/72157628646931663/

12 barn owl fascinating facts

Discover 12 fascinating facts about the beautiful barn owl.
1 The barn owl was voted Britain’s favourite farmland bird by the public in an RSPB poll in July 2007.
2 Historically, the barn owl was Britain’s most common owl species, but today only one farm in about 75 can boast a barn owl nest.
3 Barn owls screech, not hoot (that’s tawny owls).
4 The barn owl can fly almost silently. This enables it to hear the slightest sounds made by its rodent prey hidden in deep vegetation while it’s flying up to three metres overhead.
5 The barn owl’s heart-shaped face collects sound in the same way as human ears. Its hearing is the most sensitive of any creature tested.
6 Barn owls are non-territorial. Adults live in overlapping home ranges, each one covering approximately 5,000 hectares. That’s a staggering 12,500 acres or 7,100 football pitches!
7 It’s not uncommon for barn owl chicks in the nest to feed each other. This behaviour is incredibly rare in birds.
8 In order to live and breed, a pair of barn owls needs to eat around 5,000 prey items a year. These are mainly field voles, wood mice, and common shrews.
9 Though barn owls are capable of producing three broods of five to seven young each year, most breed only once and produce, on average, only two and a half young. 29 per cent of nests produce no young at all.
10 91 per cent of barn owls post-mortemed were found to contain rat poison. Some owls die as a direct result of consuming rodenticides, but most contain sub-lethal doses. The effects of this remain unknown.
11 In a typical year, around 3,000 juvenile barn owls are killed on Britain’s motorways, dual carriageways and other trunk roads. That’s about a third of all the young that fledge.
12 Everyone can help barn owls. Leave a patch of rough grassland to grow wild thus creating habitat for voles, erect a super-safe deep nest box, volunteer for your local barn owl group, switch to non-toxic rodent control