About six weeks ago, just after both little owl fledglings had fledged I noticed I had recorded HD footage of a surprise visitor to the owls' favourite barn at the time. You'll have to watch the video to find out what I'm talking about if you don't know already...

This week (six to seven weeks after both our little owls had fledged), I reclaimed the trail camera from their "winter barn" (it has been there a week now) and found I'd recorded footage of another surprise visitor.

Please press "play" on the embedded player below and enlarge the player to fill your screen as usual (click the box and arrow at the bottom RHS of the player) - that way the playback will be the best quality and jerk-free).

Owl watch - Tawny drops onto new barn

I'm not talking about the large flock of jackdaws at the start of the clip of course, but the tawny owl at the end.

Now I might have hoped for an accidental* clip of a barn owl on that barn (*I'm after little owls of course with all these clips) as I've watched them hunt and roost within 300 yards of this little owl barn but I'd never have expected a tawny owl to show up on the barn (Generally more of a woodland bird specialist, or mature tree specialist anyway).

What a lovely surprise!

NB. The little owl in the gloom at the beginning of the clips is one of this year's young - whereas the owl peering under the corrugations in the sun near the end of the clip is one of the parents.

I've still not seen more than two owls at any one time any time I've gone up to see them this week (and I've gone to "Owl ville" pretty-well each day in week 29. For the majority of the week I thought they had dispersed as I didn't manage to see ANY owls at all - though with a bit more detective work I've since ascertained that far from using this one perch as a favourite (where the trail camera is set), they use the whole area of BOTH their summer and winter sheds - thats about the size of two tennis courts - so getting video footage now might be a bit challenging....

I'll not put the trail camera on the shed for a wee while and see what happens this week...