Barn Owl update

Over the last two days I've have been checking, with Duncan & Ian's help, some of the Barn Owl boxes to get a feel as to how they might be doing this year in south Nottinghamshire. We checked 11 boxes covering seven territories, and 6 were occupied by Barn Owls: four on completed clutches and two on small chicks. Average clutch size is 3 to 4. Based on last year, I would have expected five pairs, so overall it was quite encouraging with birds off to a quick start. Also there's apparently good survival of adults as four of the females were retraps and the other two had been ringed as pullus last year. Lastly, Duncan finally got to ring adult Barn Owl after having processed 9 of them!
Jim

 A retrap female near Cotham - she was in moult and on 4 small chicks.
Ringed as a 5 last year.