A Little Owl question please

Hi Bryan, another wildlife site, what ever can they are thinking of when everyone knows this is the best wildlife site in the known universe!



I have not seen the little owls you refer to Rowanberry has we have no television, but I would expect by now they would most likely be juveniles in which case both parents deliver food in which they can manage to feed themselves, however if not juveniles the following would be the case.



Funnily enough though this was one of first things I carried a field study on Bryan; consequently, I based the following on fifteen different populations the furthest of which was two hundred and twenty-three miles apart in order to represent the most accurate answer as possible, and the placement of little owl boxes whilst I was there of course. However as data such has this varies as indeed does other behaviour / data depending on the circumstances the following were my findings...



The male does all the hunting and leaves the food in which the female feeds to the chicks. After the time period of fourteen days has passed both adults hunt, however the male does sometimes feed insects and worms, although due to the dry weather at present the latter would be unavailable. The larger prey is fed by the female tearing it up first, that is if the one of the chicks does not snatch and swallow whole it first, which they can do at two weeks old. After twenty-eight days has passed the juveniles can catch their own food mainly insects but still rely on the adults to kill larger prey for them from thirty-two to thirty-six days.



Foot note



In order to obtain these results, I spent three days and nights at each location over a period of five years, as I suspected the fully independent time period varied between pairs and populations depending on when the clutch was first laid and the food value each juvenile received, which I had already ascertained by observing the adults diet and amount in order to quantify my belief that this question and many others is not set in stone. However, the rest of my time was spent observing their other behaviour.



Nonetheless, has I now have fifty five boxes to monitor, maintain, and clean each year, plus another eighty three natural nesting sites to monitor it will take some time yet until I have the finale result. Taking into account the juvenile feeding times at this age is between ten pm and five am this is not an easy task has ten of these fifteen locations were done by listening for their food begging calls in the dark. But fortunately I am lucky enough to have five nesting locations that are illuminated by security lights.



I should also mention one of those locations was here on my own farm where I have two successful breeding pairs which produced seven progenies between them this year, and something that my mid- September dispersal post I hope to mention amongst other things.



Ps



Here are some figures which vary as one would expect...



Fledging – May the twenty-eight to August the third at twenty- six to thirty-two days old, mid-June being a mean average



Dispersal June the twenty-eight to November the second, most of the juveniles studied dispersed in mid-September, has indeed my own little owls have for the past five years. Those dispersals in November are the result of the first clutch having failed and laid again (unusual,) or late to disperse being reluctant to leave their natal territory.



Alan