Hawk Owl(lets)

After writing my last post it stopped raining long enough for us to go out for a dog walk and the sun even came out such that butter- and dragonflies took to the wing. Birds stole the show though this time.

We came upon an area with a number of nestboxes that were meant for either owls or Goldeneyes/Goosanders. I think I commented out loud about how I wish I had discovered this area earlier in the year before suddenly hearing the sound of a begging young owl! I was unsure what owl it was but a bit of searching revealed two nearly fully grown but still begging Hawk Owlets!! One kept low down but the other perched on tree tops and apart from the feathering on the head both looked adult like and could fly well. They clearly had no intention of looking after themselves yet and were constantly begging for food. Interestingly though I saw no sign of the parents on either Sunday or Monday and on Monday saw (and heard) only one youngster so maybe the adults were in the process of weaning them off.

The general area where the owls were was one I had visited 4 times previously looking for butterflies so I was rather bemused that I had not noticed the owls before. It turns out though that Mrs. OB and Jr Jr had previously seen a bird that Mrs thought was a hawk and Jr Jr thought was an owl…..

 

A Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (which would appear to be very rare in the area) had also discovered the owls and was giving them grief - using its call that resembles Great Spotted pecker.

young Hawk Owl (haukugle) begging for food

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) which was not too happy with the Hawk Owls presence