The Owl in t'Ole, the Vole's 'Oles and a Coypu's rear end....

We've been having a lot of Tawny Owl [Strix aluco] Chouette hulotte activity over the past few weeks...
regular trilling sessions in the hangar...
and male and female calling from by the river...
and the male doing "territorial tours" at intervals throughout the night....
so we put the new wide-angle "piege photographique" out by the owl box.
We decided to get a wide-angle as  a second one...
as the narrow angle of the first gave too many triggered videos with nowt in them!!

This is a real stake-out!

Initially, we recorded nothing... the camera was too far from the box!!

Now in a much better position....

Once I had repositioned the apparatus...
ie: banged the wooden stake in the ground in a different position...
not difficult given how boggy the ground is at the moment...
then mounted the camera on top...all highly complex!
Result!!

And this is the view from the camera

The hole has changed its appearance...

Did you knock?

Hey, you...robot...

...did YOU knock!?

She...because of the size...
we'd noticed last year that she seemed to have difficulty getting through the hole...
designed for a MUCH sleeker species... a Barn Owl...
she was being mobbed by a lot of small passerines....
and, fortunately for us, she was up an hour or two earlier than normal!!

VIDEOs:
The first shows intense activity by the mobbing crowd....
the second shows the Owl reacting to the mobbing.

So, on the Faune Touraine site...
Pauline has been able to record evidence of nesting....
for the second year on the trot!!
We just need to record the male arriving with food...
and it would be nice to record the young this year...
another reason for the wide-angle version!
Dad looked very confused last year when he turned up...
with a nice vole... and there was no one at home!!

Meanwhile the first camera trap has also been busy...
about three weeks back we saw watervole activity...
Southern Watervoles [Arvicola sapidus] Campagnol aquatique....
two individuals jumping into the river...
again, I put the camera in the wrong position...
expecting riverbank activity, I placed it on the longère side of the millstream...
result...
a lot of nada!!

Then, just over seven days ago, I took a different route back from the owl box...
mainly to check on signs of deer activity...
and, drawing level with the sighting of the voles, I saw this at the side of the path...

This is a view down on top of a Water Vole runway

The run continues along the bottom here...
and the three dark areas above, are where it has sat and fed.

A well trodden vole width path, leading from the old ford, comes up to this feeding area.
So....

Yes... it is active this close to the house

This is the camera on tripod....
I have extended the column, because the pictures below....
taken at half the height....
aren't showing the vole clearly enough.

The camera was quickly repositioned...
and on Leap Day we got results... both night and day!!
First we got a night shot....

Just triggered the camera...

And then some daytime feeding.... watervoles are active day and night...

The vole is at the left....
this will help you spot it in the video below.

Then, yesterday, we had a very good daytime sighting...
a vole came bobbing along in the coffee "au lait" floodwater...
and swung into the bank opposite the lounge windows.
Cue frantic dash for camera and repositioning...
out it came and continued downstream...
click... click... click...
it went under the bridge....
I played "Pooh" voles and ran to the front door...
click... click... click...
and it swung into the bank again...
and vanished into the undergrowth.
Got a good few pix...
check...

Oh! OH!
No....OH NO!!
Aarrrgh!

I am using the camera on manual at the moment...
it was set for bright sunlight...
I was taking pix of the Siskins a few days back...
when we had some sun!
All the shots were black.... my fault entirely....
should have taken a test exposure...
just before the little blighter re-appeared...
and taken note of what the camera was trying to tell me!
It has happened before...
it WILL happen again... of that I am certain!
As will the opposite... the all white shots!!

But, where that little vole swung into the bank and vanished....
was right where the well used path to the feeding area begins...
it may well have taken a selfie?!
We won't know until I've checked the camera....
and I am only checking every few days to avoid too much disturbance.
In the meantime... the coypu exited left!

This is a Coypu kit... so much larger than a Muskrat or a Watervole.

Posted by Tim
for....

A sort of non-winter

As the New Year begins, temperatures remain unseasonably high. This is no doubt the reason for some unusual wildlife sightings. Yesterday lunchtime on the back road out of the village towards les Roches we met this young hedgehog [Erinaceus europaeus] herrisson sniffling its way along the roadside. Hedgehogs are mostly active by night but not this one. It looked extremely fit and showed no fear of us.

Young Hedgehog, Les Roches

Would you happen to have a worm about you?

There might be one under here ...

We are regularly entertained by large flocks of siskins [carduelis spinus] tarins des aulnes - between twenty and fifty at a time twinkling through the trees.

Despite appearances, this picture is the right way up

Female siskins living up to their French name in an alder

Male siskins - little beauties

The bright sunshine reveals the subtleties of plumage, regardless of species. The olive green of siskins, greenfinches and green woodpeckers emphasised by swirls of yellow, black and in the woodpecker's case, scarlet. Great spotted woodpeckers [dendrocopus major] pics épeiches are doing their best to reduce the top branches of our ancient walnut tree to wood chip. You can see the pieces flying out as they hammer away. Their green cousins have been doing likewise, although they mostly feed on the ground.

A suitably scabby branch for a male great spotted woodpecker

This time of year is mating season for owls. A little owl [athene noctua] chevêche d'Athèna posed beautifully for us on the pile of assorted timber / firewood just beyond our fence. This pile is all that remains of the greater part of the poplar plantation next door, which was harvested in late summer. We know that little owls have nested over the road at Bezuard. It looks as though they are back. What the orioles that nested in the plantation will do next summer is anybody's guess.

Bits of this timber are disappearing from time to time - rather more than the woodpeckers account for!

The tawny owls [strix aluco] chouettes hulottes have been conducting their annual competition for best male vocalist, with up to six dotted about the valley giving it all they've got. We have a winner, who is now doing a circuit of the house and meadow every evening, hooting confidently.

But this year the tawnies may have competition for the owl box. We have seen several times a pair of barn owls [tyto alba] effraie des clochers on roadside fence posts only about two kilometres down the valley. Tim was photographing the Christmas full moon when another barn owl, this time a dark morph, flew past on the opposite side of the road. We also have encountered a long-eared owl [asio otus] hibou moyen duc on the far side of the river. These big birds have quite a large range and could nest anywhere in the locality.

Feathers

As well as resuming their courtship, the tawny owls strix aluco chouette hulotte are moulting. I found a feather in the hanger on my potting bench, which had been in use the previous day. They were singing to each other in the  hangar during the night, exchanging trills and soft calls in the most intimate way. The acoustics of the hangar seem to suit them, with one metal wall, one mortared stone wall and two open sides, which allows for a quick exit, not to mention a selection of handy metal beams to perch on for singing, canoodling and grooming.

I found the second feather in the front garden a couple of days later, after another operatic exchange in the hangar. It is more obviously damaged than the first, having lost the tip.

Both feathers are coverts, which spring from the bird's "upper arm", as it were, and cover the bases of the main flight feathers. The first is a greater covert, and the second is I think a lesser covert, from  close to the bird's body.

From www.rspb.co.uk, diagram by Peter Grant

What gives them away as owl feathers is their velvety surface, which gives them a slightly out of focus look, and the fine fringes on the edges of the feather.

The part played by these features in flight is to break up the turbulence of the air passing over the bird's wing into smaller vortices, and smooth it out, thus reducing the noise made by the bird passing through the air. The smoothed air flows silently - thus the owl is silent in flight and attacks without the noise of its approach alerting its prey. You can read more about this here.

With thanks to Tim Dixon, tutor, Birdwatching, York Educational Settlement, early 1980s.

Oh, deer

It's déjà vu all over again. Yesterday I spotted Myrtle the moorhen having a spot of nookie with a gentleman friend. She then drove him away. For the first time since her male went missing her "flags" were showing under her tail, and they continue to show as she puk-puk-puks up and down the millstream once more. She still isn't achieving much but all the signs are she's feeling happier, despite the destruction of her nest.

The tawny owls are repeating their courtship behaviour from the end of February: excited "yik-yik-yik-yik" calling by the female in the hangar on Wednesday night, with a softly hooted response from the male and a gruff intervention by another female, then the "huia" call from her and trilling from him on Thursday, which we recorded. The timescale seems somewhat telescoped, but this time the pair are not strangers to one another, not to mention that there is not much of the breeding season left. The trail camera has arrived, and we are going to see what we can see tonight.

Tawny owls do not have two broods in a year unless they lose the first one. The timing is just about right for a second brood, and going on Baron's hunting success there is an excellent supply of voles. Another possibility is that work at Moulin de Chevarnay may have destroyed the nest. The huge evergreen hedge (too fine for leylandii, I think they are thuyas} has been cut down from about five metres to one metre a couple of weeks ago. All the machinery for digging a fosse septique was there plus lorries taking away the spoil. The noise and people will have disrupted quite a few nesting birds. At least our view is enhanced by the distant roofs and weeping willow that we couldn't see before.

We have one newcomer to report - a roe buck Chevreuil européen (Capreolus capreolus). Tim spotted him yesterday lying in one of the mowed areas of the meadow. Today we both saw him under the nearest of the big old willows, or rather under a network of new growth projecting from an old fallen branch that remained connected to the tree. His antlers still have velvet on them, and he's scraped some of it off since yesterday. He's obviously found this to be an ideal spot to rest, scrape his antlers, feed and shelter from the rain.

Awwwww....

More than just a pronghorn

Just as long as you stay out of the vegetable garden, matey. And the orchard. You don't know how good you taste.

Owl Howl...

More owl news....
all day yesterday, Pauline was hearing a Tawny Owl calling in broad daylight.
Now this usually occurs if it is being mobbed....
but normally stops when it gets fed up and moves off.
Either this one had something to stick aroud for....
or whatever was rattling its cage wasn't very effective!

Then last night on our return from Yzeures...
see the previous post...
were three calling round us...
two males and one female.
They appeared to be flying around as they called...
and there was us thinking that we'd certainly got a pair...

Then less than twenty minutes ago...
I saw one of them!
Pauline is in the hangar [Dutch barn] sowing seeds...
I went to talk to her and just as we began talking...
a large Tawny left the Kestrel box I put up last year and flew across our orchard and vanished into our most wooded area.
That was at 1:10 PM French time...
a lovely sight...
but unfortunately the closest view for me only...
Pauline was concentrating on sowing and only heard the rustle and clip of its claws on the box as it left... she looked up to see it going away over the verger!!
No pix... no camera in hand

As we said in the nestbox post....
birds choose where they want to nest...
despite the best efforts of box builders!!
 The box isn't being used as a roost...
Tawny Owls like to perch upright!!
And... going on the books, the box is the wrong shape entirely!!
However, they have been observed using old crow's nesting platforms...
we just hope that we've not disturbed "her"!

"She" must have been very nearby yesterday as well...
Pauline kept hearing a raptor call that sounded a bit like a buzzard...
but wasn't right...
and it was also, like the Kingfisher...
at a frequency that I can no longer hear*...
and she heard it again as the owl flew off.

-----------ooo000OOO{}OOO000ooo-----------

*I was all too aware of my loss of some frequencies last night...
there were calls that were inaudible to me... and others where I couldn't hear all that was described.

Owl together now

It has been a great privilege to overhear what I can only describe as an operatic love affair worthy of Tristan and Isolde, between two Tawny Owls [Strix aluco] Chouette hulotte. But it is as though we are listening to the opera on the radio. We have never seen any of the protagonists, but we have heard them up to three times a night for the past six weeks - and the drama is by no means over yet. In the absence of any of our own pictures, here is a wonderful picture by Martin Mecnarowski from the Czech Republic.

Copyright Martin Mecnarowski under Creative Commons

We have learnt a lot about Tawnies, their behaviour and particularly the sounds they make since 16th February, from both literature and observation. I basically knew that the females calls "kee-wick" and the male goes "tu-whooo". ""Tu whit tu whoo", the merry note of Shakespeare, is not the call of one bird but the combined contact call of a pair. I learnt that they mate for life (only four or five years on average in wild birds, though a captive bird reached the age of 21) so it's to the female's genetic advantage to form a bond with the best male possible. What the literature doesn't say is that she initiates the process (in our hangar in this case) with screeches and trills of high excitement when her hormones reach the right state of readiness. Mid February is a typical time for this to happen, when she is about 9 months old. The four males that responded may not all have been the same age, and on 4th March she kicked off a response from what sounded like eight males - probably every male for miles around.
Her "kee-wick" calls were loud and carried a long way.
However the trill, though soft and musical, does not carry. It is supposed to only be audible over some 50 metres. It is rare for humans to hear this trill from a wild bird, and there is only one recording of it on Xeno Canto out of 188 Tawny Owl recordings [I've put that in lower down].

One male (bolder?) came into the hangar to call for her, several nights running. She called out with regular shrill "kia" noises, and he hooted in reply to make up the "tu whit tu whoo". I recorded these calls with the voice recorder on my veteran Nokia mobile phone. At the time I thought I hadn't got anything. It was only when I downloaded these recordings that I realised that they actually aren't too bad. The tricky bit of this was to get the recording out of the phone. and onto something that can process it. Nokia's software doesn't do it - in the end I just treated the phone as another storage device, found the recordings with Explorer and copied them to the computer.

These are the Nokia recordings from just after midnight, 16th February....
first the female calling "kia" and the male hooting gently


and again 



His lyrical hooting calls contrasted with the fortissimo blast he gave one night in challenge when another male had the temerity to respond from outside. I was standing in the barn listening in darkness, and I didn't know the doors to the hangar were open! She too was outside, moving around probably from one telephone/electricity post to another.

After that we heard them flying up and down the valley several times per night, she leading, he following, stopping briefly in a tree or pole to call to one another. 

The owls were also coming together for more intimate meetings, and some of these were in our hangar. After numerous attempts I managed to make a recording of the trilling call, this time being made by the male. It's recorded on an I-pod using a microphone intended for voice memos. The quality is awful, with a lot of white noise, and it failed completely to pick up the female's high-pitched call. The Nokia is much better quality, albeit fainter.

First we heard the female calling, then the male replied with some gentle hoots. Then (30 seconds into the recording) he started to trill. She continued to call, although that didn't record. You can just pick out the trill, particularly in the later part of the recording.
Unfortunately, this recording is extremely faint and crackly...


but this one, from XenoCanto is somewhat clearer


We continue to hear them on their nightly rounds of the valley, and at dawn we hear the male calling from the direction of the river. It is very probable that they will breed, although we don't know where - they may take over the barn owl box. Then we might see some of these...

Copyright: Twearth.com-species-tawny owl (under Wiki Commons)

Birdland Real Estate Inc.

In the UK it has been National Nestbox Week...
which reminded me to get the boxes I started last year...

• a] finished...
• b] installed!

As far as I got with a Sparrow Commune last year
Flats 2 & 4! For the reason outlined below...
But we only got the Owl Box and Kestrel Box up!!.

It is really easy to find wood for nestboxes in the Bricos....
they often have chariots of off-cuts for a measly 5€ to 15€...
depending on what wood they've got in them.
Discard any obviously treated timber...
in France this usually means the sickly yellow stuff.
All you then need is a bit of time...
a saw and some screws...
or a hammer and nails....

Another source is more natural...
large, round chunks of firewood [at least 15cm diameter]....
cut a slice off each end and hollow out the middle section...
make a hole of the desired size [see the table below]...
and make sure this angles slightly upward...
birds do this naturally in the wild...
it creates a drip edge along the top and helps keep water out of the nest!

One tip with the natural approach...
use fresh timber!!
I used a nice length of chestnut to create "Sparrow Villas" [above & below]...
from our delivered firewood...
three years drying before delivery...
and it took two more to hollow out!!

Finally finished... and wood straps replaced with zinc on last years section.
If you get too close to the side, whack a bit of mud in!

Des-res for five families... installed, unfurnished, beautiful views...
and right where they've been living under the tiles for the last few years!!

Never again... 
next time it will be a fresh hunk of Willow or Ash from "out there"
You can also use a rotten'ish length of Willow...
protect the upper cut surface from the weather...
using a bit of good timber horizontally or something similar...
and then drill a good sized starter hole of around 2" [50mm] diameter.
Go well in, in many directions, through the hole, but don't try to fully hollow it out.
Suspend this high in a tree [at least 4 metres] and the Woodpecker will do the rest.

Last year we installed an Owl Box...
while aimed at Barn Owls, Tawny Owls are often users of these as well.
For those who drive past, it is the "oil derrick" on the far side of the main meadow...
this had to be at least five metres off the ground... it is!
It is at the absolute limit of stretch of our triple-set ladder free-standing...

These are the stages...

First... decide to prospect for oil and build a derrick!

Check the box fits on the swivel top...

Make sure it all fits together...
while you are near a workbench!!!

Dismantle the three main parts.
Trolley them all the way out to the furthest point from any road...
and erect the "derrick" and tie it down!

Re-assemble the component parts... the ladder is not touching the tower, by the by... it has legs.
The removable sides of the Owl Box are off in the middle picture... it made manoeuvring easier.
Finish assembly, remove ladder and watch the cars slow down... and wait!
So far...
no takers!!

We see Treecreepers here [Short-toed only in France] and they require a different style of nest...
they nest in crevasses in the bark of old trees.
Pauline was splitting some Sweet Chestnut a couple of years ago and the whole of the core of the log came away...
I have created the basis for nestboxes from the outer section...
These will be wired under a junction of branch and trunk...
never nail a nestbox in place on a living tree...
and always allow room for expansion of the tree...
trapping a couple of lengths of timber under the wire away from the box works fine...
The wire will cut into those first!
That applies to all tree mounted boxes!

Now, the two nest "boxes" shown below are very incomplete...
once in place I will nail bark in place on the "nestbox" to fill the gaps...
and use some of the copious amounts of moss and some mud to finally seal it up...
all I need leave is a small rectangular hole in contact with the tree's own bark.

Two rustic Treecreeper nest boxes

There are plenty of patterns for boxes on the web...
or just use your own imagination!!
For hole sizes see below, also...
and don't forget the open-fronted boxes for Robins, Black Redstarts, "Chizzicks" [White/Pied Wagtails]...

2013... An indoor box of chipboard, two different "hole" boxes and an open fronted box.
Boxes two and four went to Susan of Days on the Claise... for her orchard and potager area.
Nestboxes do NOT need perches... in fact they are a hazard and help predators get a grip!!

2014... The same indoor box, the same tall box... a new open fronted box and the LPO Red Cedar box.

Another type of box that you can make at home is a woodcrete / hempcrete box...
here all you need is a suitable mould or chicken-wire former...
some wood straw / chopped hemp stalk...
and some lime mortar....
ands plenty of space to leave them whilst they "go orff"...
the best to start with are swallow "cups" and house martin nests....
then progress to open fronted boxes.
For shapes, look up Schwegler style boxes on the web.

Pretty... but not for birds...
Two more "nevers"... NO to bright colours and NO to perches....
these even have a platform as well... perfect for a predator to stand on! NO!!
NO!!NO!!NO!!
 [The  picture is from a cake box from the local boulangerie]

NOW, WHERE TO PUT THE BOX...


The most difficult thing is siting the box correctly...
you need to take into account the compass direction of the prevailing Spring and Summer weather...
in your locality...
and the target species preferences for height and location....

There are no hard and fast rules...
but there are three things to avoid!
When I first joined the BTO... too many years ago to count...
the usual "compass" points were NW to ESE....
but this angle has narrowed in all the more up to date advice from them...
to between North and East...
the main NEVER has remained the same...
facing SE to West... too much sun and heat...
and they also face the Spring and Summer rains.
Also...
NEVER put them near feeders if you continue feeding all year....
NEVER  place too many boxes of the same type close together...
50 to 100 yds is a good rule to follow for territorial species...
This advice, though, is for installation in private homes and small gardens...
when erecting boxes in woodland or well-sheltered sites, the main "Never" rule is the one to follow...
along with the number of boxes for the same target species...
Oh, and always tilt the box forward slightly, too.

But if you "watch" the birds themselves, these "rules" just don't apply!!
They will use the most convenient hole, site, etc....
often in the most unlikely places...
Bluetits nest in the WestSouthWest face of the barn wall...
but they'll have gone in quite deep probably.
The Sparrows nest just under the tiles... "Some Like It Hot" ?
The Black Redstarts nest regularly in the pocket of an old stockman's coat that has been slung...
for some unknown reason....
way up high in the "hangar"...
or in an old Swallow nest* in the "shed"...

The old swallow nest has been lined with moss...
on the beam behind, the outline of an old nest centred on a nail

And the nestbox that came with our registration of the Pré as a Refuge LPO [vanity nature-reserving... but worth it]... gave East  to South East as the "compass" points!!
[*I've noticed that the Swallows tend to use an old nail as the starting point for their nests here....
plenty of those around!! See picture above]


Which reminds me that I haven't mentioned "indoor" nestboxes...
except pointing one out in a caption above...
outbuildings are a favourite place for some birds...
all the shelter needed... and well hidden away!
The chipboard from the Brico trolleys is perfect for these...
same patterns... mainly open-fronted... and put them up all over your dependances!
And chipboard boxes can be used out of doors, they last a couple of years...
use a good roofing material [old flat tile, suitable sized piece of slate, etc]...
and a bit of MATT varnish or paint on the outside...
there are numerous sources of water-based...
ecologically sound...
neutrally tinted...
outdoor varnishes and paints available.
But the simplest and "cheepest" protection is linseed oil!
Only applied to the outside of the nest.

The "indoor" chipboard nestbox in place.

Anyway... siting the boxes...
I have worked my way through all the often conflicting advice and have created this little blurb....

The box should face between North and East, to maximise light, and reduce weather ingress.
Unless there are trees or buildings which shade the box during the day, face the box between North and East, thus avoiding strong sunlight and the wettest winds.
Many birds will reject boxes that face due West, for example, because the box may stay too hot.

Open-fronted boxes for robins and wrens need to be low down, below 2m, well hidden in vegetation.
Those for spotted flycatchers need to be 2-4m high, sheltered by vegetation but with a clear outlook.
Woodpecker boxes need to be 3-5m high on a tree trunk with a clear flight path and away from disturbance.
Specialist boxes... owl, hoopoe, kestrel, etc... tend to come with advice if bought...
but even plans usually give siting info.

Kestrels like to be high up!

This is right beside one of "our" female Kestrel's favourite roosts...
the streaks on the corrugated iron are hers!
The box is made mainly from OSB3 offcuts...
OSB is Sterling Board to UK residents...
the No 3 indicates water resistant.

Don't pre-fill a nest box...put perhaps a little woodshaving in the bottom...
[except for woodpeckers who like to create their own residence as commented above]...
but the best way to help the birds is to provide material such as hair from cat & dog grooming, cotton, wool, lawn moss and feathers.
The most tidy way to present it to the birds is in an old wire feeder or in a rolled length of 1/2" Chicken Netting.

Mainly cat hair... time they gave something back...
along with lawn moss and some of the insulation the Sparrows keep pulling out!!

Nest boxes should normally be put up in Early January, through to the end of February. ...
at the latest...hmmmmmmmm! The LPO say by the end of April at the latest... duhhh!?
However....

"Nestboxes are best put up during the autumn.
Many birds will enter nestboxes during the autumn and winter, looking for a suitable place to roost or perhaps to feed.
They often use the same boxes for nesting the following spring.
Tits will not seriously investigate nesting sites until February or March." [RSPB Site]

Birds will often chose a ‘well-weathered’ box, and so, really...
it is best to put them up when you've made them...
and leave them in position for the following years.
Don't expect them to be occupied immediately...
and don't be upset if they aren't used for a few years...
you may have erected them within the territory of an established pair with a good nest site.
You could consider moving it after three or four years...
unless you've seen it being used as a winter roost...
such birds may well be short-distance migrants and will not have the same territories as nesters.
They may also have other residents in winter months... dormice being one!
In fact, you can make mammal specific boxes, too!

Some dimensions, etc....

Enclosed Nest-Boxes... [Diameter of hole]
Blue Tit.....................................25mm (1in)    
Great Tit...................................28mm (1 1/4in)    
Tree Sparrow.............................28mm (1 1/4in)    
Nuthatch....................................32mm (1 1/2in) [who will then "perfect" the hole with mud]    
House Sparrow...........................32mm (1 1/2in)    
Starling......................................45mm (1 3/4in)    
Great Spotted Woodpecker...........50mm (2ins)    
Little Owl...................................70mm (2 3/4in)    
Tawny Owl................................150mm (6in)    
Jackdaw.....................................150mm (6in)    

Open fronted nest-boxes:
Wren
Pied Wagtail
Robin
Blackbird
Pigeon
Spotted Fly Catcher
Kestrel

You will find that birds like Little Owl, Barn Owl, Tawny Owl and Kestrel have specific desires when it comes to boxes...
and are usually slightly weird!!
But if you need some therapy [old style] and are into basketry...
you can weave your own "bread basket" nest platforms...
kestrels like 30cm minimum!!

Maintenance of the boxes....
Do not check them during the summer, for obvious reasons....
unless you know them not to be occupied.

The written advice is that...
"They will need cleaning out from time to time... usually in the Autumn."
but ...
don't forget that sites they choose themselves never get cleaned out by other than by themselves......

The sight of bits of moss drifting past the window allowed me to get this picture on Tuesday...
of a Bluetit having an early Spring-clean!!

Nice to have a home with your own bodyguard...
the  Kestrel roosts on the cemented-in beam!

Additionally, the assorted parasites that share the nest with the birds are a valuable food source in winter....
and the nest is often a roost [as mentioned above]...
or as briefly mentioned also, a winter home for rodents...
especially dormice in field boxes...
and squirrels in larger ones...
as well as lizards, etc.

You can make "nichoirs" for these animals as well...
and for bumble and solitary bees....
not forgetting...
wintering cover for insects!
But more about these in another post!!

Now...

get building!!

There is time yet...

---ooo000OOO{}OOO000ooo---

Books to help you...:-
In English...
BTO Guide 23.... Nestboxes by Chris du Feu [BTO 1993]
This gives very explicit advice for a very wide range of boxes...
there is a 2008 edition [main section extract downloadable from the BTO as a .pdf file]
also available from Abe Books [seven copies at various low prices]

In French... but very clear.
Nichoirs & Cie by Bernard Bertrand and Thierry Laversin [éditions de Terran - 2006]
Doesn't stop at Birds... covers bees and other insects, reptiles and mammals... as well as feeders.

Les Cahiers Techniques crom the CPN...
No 106: FABRIQUONS DES NICHOIRS... [May 2004... but still around... got our copy from the Maison de la Nature at the Cherine Reserve in the Brenne]
Aimed squarely at Middle School age range [8 to 13] it is perfect for French "beginners"... clearly written and easily followed... all the necessary info is there and the cartoons are wonderful!!



Web Links for more advice...:-
RSPB - Nest Box Advice
BTO - Make a Nest Box
Schwegler  - You can download their catalogue in English from this site

The owl service

The rain has gone from fire hose to showers and today it turned off completely for a whole day. Everywhere are signs of a ridiculously advanced spring.

In Preuilly-sur-Claise for the Saffron Fair on Saturday, we saw an almond tree just coming into bloom.

Taken with my elderly Nokia mobile, I'm afraid

Yesterday Tim spotted a lizard (European wall lizard) sunning itself, and today a Brimstone butterfly flew past. The frogs are croaking, the great spotted woodpeckers are drumming, the male wren is singing (no change there). The cirl bunting is up on the wych elm by the road belting out "a little bit of bread and no - erm - prompt?!!". Today one of the chiffchaffs started up right in front of us. The blackbirds are a definite couple. A male house sparrow in immaculate breeding plumage does the hippy hippy shake in front of two females who weren't too impressed. Wings half extended, knees bent and bob up and down. Doesn't he look daft, Ada?

But the most remarkable spring song came from the Tawny Owls [strix aluco] la chouette hulotte. The romance unfolds as follows:

2nd February: Loud "kwik-kwik" calls coming from the hangar in the evening, where a female tawny owl is perching on a cross-member. The red 2CV is directly underneath, and is covered in white splodges.

9th February: Loud "whooo....whooo" calls from the barn roof. This time we have a male.

12th February: The female is in the hangar again. The "kwik-kwik" is rapid and chopped off, interspersed with "kia" calls, sounding more urgent and excited.

13th February: Two males, one calling from the riverbank, one more distant.

15th February: The female starts. The "kia" call is accompanied by an extraordinary trilling hoot, very musical and pure, but not loud. [We found out that this warble is sometimes called the "xylophone trill", en ocarina in France. It is often regarded as a sign of distress or agitation.] She doesn't sound at all distressed, and keeps it up for some time. Then we hear a male's "tu whoo" from the Aigronne. Finally we are treated to a duet, both birds in the hangar, she giving a soft yelping call, he responding with gentle hoots. I try recording it with the voice recorder function of my mobile, but only get a faint echo of what is happening.

17th February: the following night, but after midnight, the same thing happens, with the female calling and (in the wee small hours) I am awakened by the duet. Tim has put recording equipment together, using a minidisk recorder with a small parabolic microphone (officially an educational toy, but capable of much more). I didn't like to wake him at such an hour.

According to the outstanding website God's Own Clay, the trill is rarely heard in the wild, and Xeno Canto has one recording of it (made on an I-phone!) out of 175 Tawny Owl examples. We're hoping the owls may get it together again tonight at a more reasonable time so we can record them.  As for pictures, Faune Touraine has lots of Barn Owl images in its photo gallery but no pictures of Tawny Owls, neither has Tim's brother Nick on his Flickr site. I'm sure we could get a picture of one or both of the birds, but we don't want our presence and the flash to drive them away. So here's a lovely portrait of a young tawny by Thomas Helbig [Germany] taken at the Falconry Centre Greifenstein in Bad Blankenburg, Thuringia.

Copyright Thomas Helbig

Tonight:
Between 8pm and 10pm we hear the male calling, then the female, with a tremolo trill as she flies past the front door. They are in the trees by the Aigronne this time.
11pm and Tim comes in saying he can hear four different males calling at the same time, so it looks like quite a party tonight and she'll be able to take her pick.
11:45pm: first the female ("kia"!) then a male ("whoo"!) fly past the house, heading upstream.

Something tells me we haven't heard the last of this!