Owlets ring true

Ringing entailed fitting a metal identification tag around the two bird’s ankles, allowing their progress to be tracked throughout their lives.

Monica Condy of the Dainfern Nature Association, explained that they had asked EcoSolutions to erect a number of owl boxes in the estate. During a visit by EcoSolutions to inspect the owl boxes, staff found two little spotted eagle owlets in one of the owl boxes.

Jonathan Haw of EcoSolutions said it was standard to ring owls and owlets in order to identify them and track their progress. Haw said they usually did ringing in the late afternoon so as not to cause disturbance to the adult owls who could be nesting in the owl box with the owlets.

“In the late afternoon, the adults will most probably just fly a little distance away and return to the box at night, whereas if we disturbed them in the morning, they would stay outside the box all day and get hassled by other birds,” Haw said.

Members of the nature association braved the rain and hail in order to witness the extraordinary process.

Just as EcoSolutions’ employees ascended the ladder to retrieve the owlets, the mother owl flew into the owl box to escape the rain. Haw noticed that the mother owl was already ringed and decided to check their system to identify her. It was discovered that the mother was in fact an owl which had been released in Dainfern eight years ago.

Haw said this was an amazing discovery, as it showed that owls are safe, breeding and thriving in Dainfern.

After the ringing process, the owlets were returned to their cosy owl box as their mother flew off into the sunset to return later that night.