We’ve had an interesting new arrival in our hospital in the past week or so.
This young Tawny Owlet was brought in after a member of the public was monitoring an Owl box using a remote camera. A female Tawny Owl laid a single egg in the box, but then was joined in the box by a Stock Dove, who proceeded to lay her own clutch of two eggs!
Both birds incubated the eggs, mostly taking turns but occasionally together, which is quite unusual as Tawny Owls would generally see a Stock Dove as a tasty meal!
The Tawny egg hatched and was being fed by mum, but there was no sign of a male Tawny assisting. Over time, the mum visited less and less, and the decision was made that the chick probably wasn’t being fed anymore, so we intervened.
The youngster is doing well and we are hoping to find it another young Tawny Owl that we could release with it at one of our hack pen sites.
