Cramped quarters! There are four young Barn Owls in this relatively small cavity in the wall of a castle in Co. Kerry (M.O'Clery, under licence from NPWS).
Some video footage from an infra-red camera installed close to a Barn Owl nest, in a castle in Co. Kerry (with thanks to Crossing the Line Films). You can see the video full-size by clicking the 'four-arrows' icon on the bottom right of the video.
The first short clip is from the night of 16th-17th May this year. Four chicks are in the rather cramped nest site, a wall cavity in the castle walls. The smallest chick got no food on the first night of filming, a night of heavy rain which prevented the adults hunting. On the second night - calm and dry - the three eldest got a steady supply of food until about 3am when the female arrived and sought out the little one to feed, and it got three more feeds before dawn.
Barn Owl nest site, May 2015, Co. Kerry (Filmed under licence from NPWS, copyright CTLFilms).
The second longer clip shows the same nest site almost six weeks later. The four chicks have all survived and are thriving. There is barely room for them at the nest entrance as they await food deliveries from the adults which arrive almost every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the night. The chicks are being very well fed.
Interesting to note that one of the adults in the video below is ringed. We have been unable as yet to read the ring number, or re-capture the adult, but it would be fascinating to see from where it came.
Barn Owl nest site, July 2015, Co. Kerry (Filmed under licence from NPWS, copyright CTLFilms).
