A beautiful crisp Winter's morning with the sun shining saw us replace an old box on the Daresbury Estate; more great cooperation from the gamekeeper Ray. The habitat still looks great and although there were no owls in the boxes there is plenty of evidence that they are about.
Back home to Northwich to check upon a box that had been unfortunately reported to me as having the inspection door opened. The good news was that inside the box there were a pair of roosting owls, the male had been ringed as a chick in 2007 at Oscroft and was last retrapped in 2009 about a mile away.
The female, in her fourth year, had not previously been ringed. Both birds were looking very healthy and were of good weight. Hopefully they will be able to breed later in the year.
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