First Barn Owl Chick of 2013

After what seems like days and days of fruitless searching around our Barn Owl sites we eventually found the first owlet of 2013 at Dutton today. Given the disappointing breeding season so far, it was not a total surprise to discover that she was a solitary chick. However, the plus side is that she had benefited by receiving all of the food from her parents and consequently weighed in at a bouncing 421 grams, making her positively plump!

There seems to be a food shortage at many of our sites but at least this bird is benefiting from the rough grassland area which provides good small mammal habitat around the nest site.