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long eared and little owls (1 Viewer)

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barnowlgirl

Well-known member
I was wondering if anyboy has any dealings with long eared and little owls that could give me some advice?

I run my barn owl study in scottish borders and now looking to start on long eared and little owls.

i have had few sightings of little owls in the area on correct habitat but would like some advice on best ways of finding nest sites and calling at suitable habitats. I havent had any sightings of long eared owls but few have been seen and heard so thought would try to get some nest sites found. I am going to be puuting up some nest boxes for little owls and try to do some baskets for long eared owls.

Any advice would be really helpful

Thanks
Caroline
 
hi barnowlgirl,

came across your post by chance & against usual practisce am responding. I've had quite a lot of experience with Lowls recently in my local park where they seem to be at a high density. They have gone quiet recently, their main calling period is march-april. I presume they will be quiet until the young start to fledge from mid-june. At this time they are quite easy to locate. The young are vocal and seem to appear about half an hour before dusk, or you could get up at dawn(!) when on a cool, dull morning the families could be active for an hour or so. Hope this helps.
 
Hi again!

LEOwls are notoriously elusive. They may already have young by now- listen out for their 'rusty-gate' calls. I recently came across a very good study of LEO, in the north-east I think, when I googled LEO. It should give you some useful hints for trying to find them. Good luck.
 
In my area of Norfolk Little owls are frequently associated with grazed grassland and ivy covered trees rather than the tree- arable land type habitats. I think the short grassland provides ideal hunting. However we do get them in some areas of open arable land where they are frequently easy to find sitting on phone poles . Indeed poles are always worth checking along quiet roads. They use them as hunting perches for anything crossing the tarmac. When the young leave the nest look on livestock posts under trees , they will often wait on them for the adults to bring food in broad daylight. Many of the nests I have found are in hollow branches , sometimes with openings on the underside , rather than in the main trunk.
 
I have had a little owl roosting in a barn at home for years, I see him/her in the eaves most nights, although it does seem to share the spot with a kestrel, not at the same time. I often see them in small, dark woods in cheshire. Yet to see a long eared in my life.
 
it amazing working with the owls, i love working with all the birds tho its great fun. I have got taylors book on barn owls as i have few of his old sites. That book sounds quite good i ll have be trying to get it! thanks
 
found my ever 1st long eared owl nest today had 3 chicks on! was great! going back tomorrow to ring the chicks.

Took 2 hour to find the nest, got chicks calling and all signs of birds being in the block of trees but couldnt not see the nest at all! so decided i climb a tree to have look from there! to my shock i had climbed up the tree with the nest in! couldnt stop smiling at the chicks and finding the nest!

now cant wait for tomorrow to ring the chicks!

thanks
barnowlgirl
 
as already mentioned March best for adult LO vocals

Know youre very keen on Barn owls, we have regular overlap & shared hunting grounds of BO & LEO territories here.

calm dusk visits during MARCH generally best for LEO pre breeding activity

mid MAY through to beginning of AUGUST adult LEOs busy hunting to feed young

we have some out of date stuff on dbc website

summary of several years survey in this years DBC annual report ( 90 odd pairs confirmed in County)

Steve 079 79 six 0 1231
 
Hi stevie, is that 90 odd pairs for long eared or barn? I cant imagine how much field work has gone in locating that many long eared as some pairs i have known that have bred successfully where discovered by accident as the adults did not hunt till well after dark
 
I have round 10+ prs of LEO within 5 miles of me and 6+ prs of LO within a couple of miles of me inc. a pair breeding by the house. I live on arable farmland in the fens (98% arable).

Both species are very vocal and very site faithful using the same nest site year after year. Both species have young down here, not sure if they will be that advanced up your way.

LEO - forget finding these other than by call. Nows a good time to track them to breeding sites as both adults call throughout the season and the young are vocal (they only start to give their squeky gate once they have left the nest.

LOs can be seen easily enough, but pinning an active breeding site down is best done on cals at/just after dusk. Again, pinning a site down now whilst they are feeding young should be relatively easy. 95% of sites I know (inc. wider than my immidiate 6prs) are in buildings. The odd bird breeds in a tree and I know of one pair which breeds in a hay stack!

Do your groundwork this season for next and this should help you consideraly. But do you have time with all those Barn Owl sites to cover!

Good luck with finding them.
 
i dont work at all so all i do is my owls and guy i work with i help him doing his birds so i have plenty time.

my barn owls have had bad year only got 28 occupied breeding nests that snow we had up here for 3 weeks had big effect on them.

very pleased with the long eared we got the chicks were just coming off the nest today but got all 3 ringed now!

i havent gone to find any SEO but got habitat n sightings just need pin point nest! and got find little owl nest but they could be fun alot of trees and suitable bits where they were seen! but i will find them eventally!

thanks
barnowlgirl
 
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