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Scroll to the bottom of this page to see 12 of the most recent pictures of the little owl box, taken at 10-minute intervals, but note that you can also see more pictures taken at 2-minute intervals.
The camera is set to upload pictures to the website during daylight hours at 2-minute intervals. (As I have to manually vary the starting/end times, these will not accurately follow sunrise and sunset.) This page shows a selection of 12 of the pictures, taken at 10-minute intervals over the most recent 2 hours of operation; however, all 60 of the pictures taken over the past 2 hours are accessible via the link near the bottom of this page.
The pictures are shown on this page with a resolution of 320 x 240; however, the camera uploads them with a resolution of 640 x 480. Therefore you will be able to save them to your PC with this higher resolution. If you click on the refresh button of your browser and the camera has uploaded another picture, this will be shown at the bottom right and the remaining pictures will be replaced by others taken 2 minutes later.
You may see one standing on the veranda of the box (or looking out of the box) even during the winter months, especially when the weather is warm and sunny, but your chances will be greatly improved whilst they are feeding their young in the box.
Check the entrance hole of the box very carefully. It should look black. If there is any evidence of a shape or a pattern in the hole, it is likely that there is an owl looking out or standing near the entrance. Sometimes they stick their heads completely out of the hole, but quite often they stand a little way back and look out.
Around the last week in April, the activity of the owls will change significantly. From this time, they spent little, if any, time standing on the veranda of the box, but you may see the female looking out of the box, or leaving for only a short while whilst incubating her eggs.
In mid May there will be a significant increase in activity, intiially with the male taking food to the box and finally (by the 3rd or 4th week in May) both the male and the female taking food. You can have a look at one of the owls arriving at the box with a mouse by clicking here.
The female tends to stand on a nearby fencepost and the male flies up to it and passes food to the female, which then flies back to the box.
You can have a look at two of the baby owls (and possibly a third) looking out of the nestbox if you click here. This recording was made at 16:46 on 31/5/05.
By early Jone, the young owls will be getting quite big and you should see them looking, and venturing, out of the box. Click here to see another MPEG4 video, recorded at 21:09 on 4/5/06 and showing one of the parent owls bringing what appears to be a small rodent to the owlets.
In 2005, the first of the owlets left the nest at about 18:45 on the 7th of June. We were somewhat concerned about it as it looked to have left the nest a little early. (It could do little more than flutter to the ground and there are a number of dogs at a nearby dairy farm, as well as local foxes and a cat.) I put the young owl back onto the veranda of the nestbox, but it had no intention of staying there, so I stayed with it until it reached the security of the base of a thick hawthorn hedge. This left only two owlets in the nestbox, one of which had already ventured out onto the veranda of the nestbox by 21:34 on 7/6/05 in order to give his/her wings a good flap as you can see by clicking here.
We never saw the second 2005 owlet leave the nestbox, but after it did, we saw a lot less of the parents - presumably looking after the first two owlets was taking up most of their time. Nevertheless, the third owlet continued to grow and appeared fully feathered by 13/6/05 when it ventured out of the nestbox, as you will see if you click here.
Owlet 3 can be seen (by clicking here) having a good stretch of his legs and wings on 15/6/05. It left the box shortly after dawn on 17/6/05, some 10.5 days after Owlet 1.
Even after the owlets have left the nestbox, they will continue to return to it for a few weeks.
Although this page shows pictures taken at 10-minute intervals, the camera is actually set to upload a picture to the site every 2 minutes. The PHP code for this page then selects only a fifth of them. You have the opportunity of seeing all 60 pictures that have been taken over the past 2 hours by clicking here. If the owls are coming and going frequently, this will improve your chances of seeing one of them.
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| Wednesday 14th December 2022 14:35 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 14:45 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 14:55 (GMT) |
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| Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:05 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:15 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:25 (GMT) |
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| Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:35 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:45 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 15:55 (GMT) |
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| Wednesday 14th December 2022 16:05 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 16:15 (GMT) | Wednesday 14th December 2022 16:25 (GMT) |
To have a look at some saved pictures or video clips of the little owls, click here.
To return to the Little Owl Box homepage, click here.
If you are interested in the camera that took the photographs on this page, click here.
You are visitor number 1104 to this page, which became live on 27/2/05.