The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We have had a record number of pairs (70) of Little Owls using Bob Sheppard's nest-boxes this year, despite it being a poor breeding year for other owl species.

However the combination of dry weather and lack of small rodents has reduced the number of chicks fledging. In Lincolnshire Little Owls rely quite heavily on earthworms for food, and these only surface during wet weather.

Number of Little Owl pairs using nestboxes was:

2013 - 70
2012 - 59
2011 - 67

The overall total failure rate was comparable with previous years:

2013 - 28%
2012 - 30%
2011 - 27%

Average number of chicks fledging from successful nests:

2013 - 2.3
2012 - 2.8
2011 - 3.0


Alan