Barn owls on Elm Stump cam
Barn owls on Sycamore Stump cam
Kestrels on Ash Hollow cam
Tawny owls on Ash Tree bird cam
There are two livestreams on YouTube streaming from bird cams hidden inside owl and kestrel boxes. The first bird cam, streamed from my garden at Fotherdale in Yorkshire, features two barn owl nests and a kestrel nest. Watch it here: LIVE FROM FOTHERDALE.
The second livestream streamed from a restored woodland known as Ash Wood, features a tawny owl nest and a kestrel nest. Watch it here: LIVE FROM ASHWOOD .
Bird Cams streaming live from Fotherdale
Barn owl cams
There are two barn owl families here streamed from two bird cams. One bird cam is hidden inside an owl box named Elm Stump and another is streamed from the Sycamore Stump bird box.
Barn owls on Elm Stump bird cam
Barn owls Gylfie and Finn are the main resident pair here at Fotherdale and they live in the Elm Stump owl box. They have two chicks, Nutmeg & Thyme.
Gylfie
Adult female | Raising two chicks in Elm Stump
Distinguishing Characteristics: Heavy Dark Markings Along Top of Head | Not Ringed | Tiny Black Tip in Ruff of Facial Disc
Gylfie has lived at Fotherdale since 2018. Last year her long-term partner, Barney, passed away and she began courting Finn. She is very typical for a female barn owl here in the UK in that her feathers are darker than you find in male barn owls and if you look at the top of her head she has more blues and greys than many of the other female owls.
Gylfie has never been rung and so does not wear an ID tag. But she has unique markings along the bottom of her facial disc which, although hard to spot, can be relied on for absolute confirmation of her identification. If you look closely at the photograph above, you will see it: a tiny black dot on the right of her beak right inside the 'ruff' of her fringe. I've found that the colouring on the feathers around owl's facial discs stays with them throughout each moult so this is an ideal way to tell the differences between these owls.
Finn
Adult Male | Rehabilitated at Fotherdale August 2019 | Supporting Gylfie & chicks in Elm Stump
Distinguishing characteristics: sideburns | Vertical white feathers on top of facial disc
Finn is Gylfie's partner. The story of their early courtship is very romantic. Read it here. Finn is much younger than Gylfie and 2021 is his first breeding year. So far he is turning out to be a fantastic first time dad. Follow this link to watch a film on my YouTube channel to see just how attentive he is or read this blog post about this devoted barn owl dad.
Finn is a rescue owl. He was found on the floor in a barn in Scarborough as a young chick and came here in 2019 for rehabilitation. He fledged from Elm Stump in September 2019. You can tell him apart by the ring on his right leg. He also has very white feathers right at the top of his heart-shaped facial disc and darker feathers along each side of the disc which almost look like sideburns. This makes him reasonably easy to tell apart even though he is a typical male and generally whiter than the females.
Nutmeg & Thyme
Hatched | 4 & 7th June 2021 | Nutmeg: Female | Thyme: Male
Nutmeg, left, is the larger of the two since she hatched three days before Thyme, right. You can tell from the wispy, down on Thyme's head that not all his adult feathers have come through yet. You can also tell that Nutmeg is a female by the darker ruff of feathers around her face. The diamond shape in the centre of Thyme's forehead in the photo above is due to the way he is holding his feathers and is not a distinguishing characteristic. Nutmeg and Thyme are the surviving chicks from a clutch of three. The third one sadly died, possibly after getting too cold.
Barn owls on Sycamore Stump bird cam
Barn owls Ghost and Willow recently moved into Sycamore Stump where my bird cams captured Willow as she laid a late clutch.
Ghost
Adult male | No ID ring |Sycamore Stump. Distinguishing characteristics: very pale, bowed left leg.
Ghost is named for his particularly pale colouring. He and Willow originally staked out Sycamore Stump as a potential nest site, but they were beaten to it by the kestrel pair. Watch the story here. They spent most of this spring and early summer in another bird box named the Barn Owl Tower. However as soon as the kestrel chicks fledged these owls returned to Sycamore Stump where my bird cams streamed Willow as she laid a clutch. Watch this short clip to see them.
Willow
Adult female | No ID ring | Look for in Sycamore Stump
Distinguishing characteristics: no ID ring, dark edging to facial disc and dark band across upper breast
Willow is a darker female with a dark ruff around her facial disc that makes her easier to identify. Neither she nor Ghost have ID rings so we are not sure of their background stories but they have lived here at Fotherdale for much of this year, mainly at the Barn Owl Tower bird box.
Kestrels of Sycamore Stump
Kestrel pair Mr & Mrs Kes raised six chicks in Sycamore Stump this year where my bird cams recorded their story. Click here to watch it. Although all six chicks have now fledged you occasionally see them land on the feeding posts.
Bird cams streaming live from Ash Wood
Ash wood is a new habitat developed in 2021 to attract wildlife. Learn about its creation here. Already little owls, tawny owls, badgers and deer inhabit the wood. Below is a list of the individual birds you can spot on the bird cams.
Kestrels on Ash Hollow bird cam
Streaming live from my Ash Hollow bird box are Apollo and his mate Athena. Three of their five chicks survived and have now fledged successfully. Click here to watch their story.
Apollo
Male kestrel | Grey tail | 2 years old. Apollo is a very eager kestrel. Easily distinguishable by his grey/blue head and tail feathers, this is his first breeding season and he is keen to please his mate Athena.
Athena
Female kestrel | Brown with greying tail | 3+ years old. Athena is older than Apollo and more experienced. She has a few blue, grey feathers in her tail which indicate that she is more than three years old. She is also quite assured and tends to boss Apollo about mercilessly.
Three kestrel chicks
Their chicks have now fledged but you can spot them occasionally on the perches.
Tawny owls on Ash Tree bird cam
A family of four tawny owls live in the Ash Tree owl box. They are Bonnie, Ozzy and their chicks Bramble and Sage. The parent birds overcame the tragic loss of their first clutch of eggs before laying again and are particularly protective of their two chicks. Click here to watch their story.
Bonnie & Ozzy
Adult male: Ozzy | Adult female: Bonnie | Ash Tree bird cam. It is very difficult to tell male and female tawny owls apart. Although the British Trust for Ornithology claims that females are larger than males, Bonnie and Ozzy are the same size. In daylight you can tell them apart by the way Bonnie's feathers are slightly more ginger in colour than Ozzy's. Ozzy also has a short white fringe to the feathers at the bottom of his tail.
Bramble & Sage
These tawny owl chicks hatched three days apart, but already the difference in size between them is less significance and it is increasingly difficult to tell them apart. Both chicks have now fledged but you can watch their story by clicking here.
Bird cams in 2020
You may also see the following barn owls on the bird cams. These owls hatched at Fotherdale in 2020 and I've included them in this list in case they return.
Solo
Female | Hatched at Fotherdale 08/05/2020 | Parent Owls Gylfie & Barney
Distinguishing Characteristics: Not Ringed | Has Black Tipped Feather Below Beak
Solo is absolutely stunning. She has much darker fringing around her facial disc than her mother does. Also un-rung, I've had to look closely at Solo's feathering to pick her out because there are several owls that look quite similar to her. But I have noticed, and if you look at the photograph below you can also see, she has a tiny black fleck just below her beak to the left. This is a really good indicator and you can pick it out on the live cameras.
Hans and Grete
Barney and Gylfie went on to have a second brood and so we also have Hans and Grete. If you are only just catching up with who's who on the cameras, I've got news for you. I'm afraid we initially identified Grete as a female and Hans as a male. We realised quite quickly that Hans was actually a female, but it wasn't until Grete had fledged that we realised he is actually a male! I told you it can be very difficult telling these owls apart!
Hans
Female | Hatched Fotherdale 10/08/2020 | Parent Owls Gylfie & Barney
Distinguishing Characteristics: Dark Flecks on Breast | Buff-Coloured Shadowing on Neck | Right Leg Ringed
Hans & Grete are ringed on their right legs so this helps identify them. And then, of course, Hans is a female, which you can tell by the flecks down the side of her breast feathers and by her heavily-trimmed facial disc.
Grete
Male | Hatched Fotherdale13/08/2020 |Parent Owls Gylfie & Barney
Distinguishing Characteristic: Right Leg Ringed | Damaged Feather
Grete is the younger of the owls and when we rang him we thought he was a female because he has a heavily trimmed facial disc, but as he has grown his downy fluff has moulted away we've seen there are no fleck markings along his breast. He is also paler than Hans, especially on the feathers on his neck - if you look at Hans this part is shadowed with buff-coloured feathers.
But the easiest way to identify Grete is by his broken wing feather. This was broken by the resident tawny owl, Bomber. Bomber is very territorial and when Hans and Grete were chicks he raided their nest regularly. On many of these running raids, he knocked the barn owl chicks about. Grete's broken feather is now his most distinguishing feature and it will stay with him, unless it breaks away, until next autumn when he moults.
