A Year in The Life of a Tawny Owl
Pictures @ Ian McGuire
January: Pair bonding has already begun; calling from both adults becomes more subdued as the month progresses. If single (without mate) the calling is still loud and often heard through the night.
February: Continuing pair bonding, the calling is fairly intense if the owl is still single, but very quite if in pair, though if you’re close you will hear calling between the pair. End of this month sees nest selection started, so any boxes must be erected well before this month.
March: Nest site chosen and eggs laid during middle or end of the month. Weather and food will determine the start of this stage. Calling is only between the pair so this is a naturally quite month. Eggs are laid and incubated by female for 28 days per egg laid. The 2-3 eggs are white and well rounded. Male brings food for the female during this time.
April Owlets hatch and are fed by male initially whilst female broods them (regulates their body heat by using hers) Once the Owlets are 2 weeks of age, the female and male now hunt for offspring, and there is lots of calling from young and occasional calls between the adults.
May: The owlets begin branching (means that young bird can’t fly but starts to move away from nests). This is the time that people find baby owls on the ground? And branching can begin as early as when the owlets are only 4 weeks of age. Owlets found should be left or placed on safe branch nearby.
June: Owlets calling increases as they now begin to fly quite strongly. Adults calling still limited to only locating the young as to feed them.
July: Adults start to moult, and the owlets are still very much around, within the territory, but start showing signs of hunting for themselves. Towards the end of this period, the owlets call is noticeable more like that of the adults
August: Adults are still moulting and owlets are still in territory, but by mid-
September: The adult moult is now over. Some owlets are still holding on in parent territory, but will now face eviction by parents and be forced to begin distribution. Calling intensifies dramatically and signals the beginnings of the Tawny Owl war season when young and in-experienced distributing owls bump into adults more experienced with life in the wild. This is crunch time for the owls hatched this year, because if they don’t accept verbal warnings from other owls to move on and find their own territory, then they could be attacked and even killed.
October All calling intensifies once more, as this is now the middle of the owl territory ‘war’.
November: Lots of calling from both sexes, but towards the end of the month the pair begin to notice each other again. Most young owls should by now have found somewhere to establish or have succumbed to starvation, road kill and even being killed by another Tawny Owl
December Owls are still calling, but generally reduced or begins to reduce in its intensity. Pair bonding can begin at any time with, once again, the male presenting food items to the female. Copulation and full courtship will then begin by the end of the month.
Call
Written by Chris Sperring MBE - not to be re-produced without the permission of The Hawk and Owl Trust
