A male Barn Owl found dead along the Tralee Bypass on 1st September 2015 (the 10th to be reported there since the Bypass opened in August 2013) caused us much concern for the future of his nest site nearby. We had already gleaned considerable knowledge of this site and had followed the fortunes of this male for several years. The story of this site, and the history of its owl occupants is now extremely detailed, and most interesting. His death ultimately led to the discovery at this site of Ireland’s oldest Barn Owl.
The scene of our story, a derelict stone barn near Tralee, Co. Kerry. There is also a large derelict house behind it in which the owls nested, before they started using a nest box installed in the barn in 2014 (M.O’Clery).
Although we don’t know where this male was hatched, our first encounter with him was when he was trapped and ringed at this nest site just outside Tralee. He was ringed on 22nd June 2013 and was already an adult, probably two years old.
Male (on the left and female Barn Owls from the nest site, in June 2013 M.O’Clery).
His nest in 2013 was in a wall cavity in the derelict house beside the barn, but they failed to breed that year, though both adults survived into winter, and in 2014 they moved nest to a high attic ledge in a different room in the same building.
Left) The derelict house where the owls nested in the first few years of the discovery of this site. Right) Nest in one year, on a mass of Jackdaw nests in the apex of the roof inside the house (M.O’Clery).
Unfortunately, 2014 was a disastrous year for Barn Owls generally and they again failed to breed, as was the case at most other nest sites in Ireland. Although the pair was seen perched by the nest in early spring 2014, visits later that spring and summer revealed only a lone male screeching each evening in a vain attempt to attract a female, until the activity petered out in June. He was unpaired that summer, the female presumably having died around the previous March or April.
Better news in early 2015 by which time he had found a new partner, and again they moved nest, into a nest box in a nearby barn, which we installed in autumn 2014. He was photographed again, perched on a beam just beside the nest box, in April 2015 (below).
The same male in April 2015, now paired up with a new female partner and nesting once again. She is inside the box, nearly ready to lay her clutch of eggs (M.O’Clery).
Five chicks were found inside the nest box in the barn in early June, the first brood of five recorded in Kerry at that time. Another visit in early August found that three chicks had survived and were just about ready to fledge.
The five chicks from the males successful 2015 nesting season (M.O’Clery).
He was found dead on the hard shoulder of the Tralee Bypass on 1st September that autumn. A sad end for this veteran male. Birds older than three are a rarity in Ireland, and it’s quite possible this bird had already survived many hunting trips along the Bypass up until now, as his nest is only a couple of kilometres away. His luck finally ran out.
Our fears that this could spell disaster for our nest site were unfounded. When it came time to check the site in early spring of 2016, to our surprise and delight, there, perched outside the nest box on a beam, was a male Barn Owl. It was clearly a male, with a remarkably ‘frosty’ shawl of white around his face, and from the photos, it was apparent he was already ringed. But where? And when?
Just as the previous male had done, the new male, seen here in May 2016, often perched in the open on the nest box, or a beam nearby. Intriguingly, he was already ringed, but we would have to wait until the ring could be read to find out where and when (M.O’Clery).
Barn Owls are generally short-lived birds, and since ringing of Barn Owls began in Ireland in 2008 only a handful of birds ever caught and ringed have been three or more years old. Barn Owls kept in captivity regularly live to be 15 or even 20 years old, but they obviously don't face the same hazards as a bird in the wild. In Ireland, at least half of all birds which fledge from the nest will not make it to their first birthday, and it is rare indeed to find a five year old bird. There are a number of sites which we know have been occupied by Barn Owls for 20 or more years, but this does not mean it is the same individual owls in residence, rather there has been a whole series of recruitments over the years.
So was this new male a youngster from the previous breeding season, and from where did he come? The question was finally answered a short while later when the ring number could at least be read, and the answer was rather astonishing. He turns out to have been ringed as a chick at a nest site in a castle in east Kerry, about 20 km away, in summer 2008. At eight years of age, he was the longest-lived wild Barn Owl so far recorded in Ireland.
Our veteran male’s birthplace, a castle in east Kerry, where he hatched in summer 2008 (M.O’Clery).
And while checking the site once more this April, there he was again, perched in the same spot outside his nest box. He had survived another winter. Almost nine years old now, and getting ready for another nesting season with his mate. Later this season, he successfully reared two chicks.
Now nine years old and going strong, Ireland’s oldest known wild Barn Owl dozes by day on his nest box, in April 2017 (M.O’Clery).
Now the question is, where on earth had he been in the eight years before he turned up at this site? Perhaps his previous partner had died, or his previous nest site was destroyed, just as the female at this site lost her partner. Was he nearby, on an overlapping territory perhaps, or did he wander far and wide in search of a new site and a new mate? We shall never know for sure, but like all veterans, he sure has a story to tell.
All Barn Owl ringing and photography at the nest sites is carried out under licence to NPWS and the BTO.
