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Fotherdale Barn Owls, Gilfian Dryas, owlets are now 7 weeks old, so they're perfect age to receive their official BTO identification rings. So today, I'm heading down to the nest to carefully collect the owlets. Before ringing and safely returning them home. Right, that was fairly straightforward. Managed to catch them both. Just getting them in the back here. And I'll get them up for ringing now. Get this job done quickly as possible. Got them? Yeah, look at the two of Got them easy this time. Good. Difficult box sometimes with them being so big. Which one do you want the first? The little one or the big one?
I don't mind. Whichever you want to give me. All right. Go with the big one. Oh, nice. Straight away we can tell what it is. What a nice pale tail he's got. He, he. He? He, I think he. Don't you think it's a he? He. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, think it's that one. Look at that. How nice is that? Fluffy bit. They smell, don't they? Yeah. He's fat though. Yeah, he is well. Fat little weight, mate. Yeah, so again, we're fitting these with BTO rings. And uh these have all got individual numbers, so we can tell uh
where this owl goes in the future if it's found again. So it's GY30666. Do you want me to weigh him? Yeah, let's get and weigh them. I'm going to have to get the glasses out. Serious stuff, this. You're very quiet, little youth. We're on now. Go on. Let's get him. There we are now, look. Cuz it were eight. Just the angle, I think. It's the reflection. All right, so we've got three 355.
Nice guy. That's all right, isn't it? It's uh good weight, that one, isn't Yeah. May we reckon, then? Yes, definitely a little I would have said so, yeah. That is super quiet. Isn't he? He may be had a lot of tea. Lots of tea last night. Yeah. It's so plastic. Absolutely stunning, isn't it? Yeah, it's a belter. Have they looked in out of this box yet? Yeah, yeah. Oh, beautiful, isn't he? Just feather perfect, isn't Oh, just stunning out there.
Yeah. Just stunning. Yeah. And these, look at these little light arrows. Yeah. Stunning. It's a bit fluffy. And then it's going to be flying soon. Yes, yeah. And you can see the um serration on the edge of the wing there. For silent flight, helps them. Yeah. Slightly smaller. Let's have a look at the next one. See what we think of you. Oh, again, heavy. Fluffy. Heavy. Bit darker, look, isn't he? Darker on the back. I think he might be a female, this one, then, I don't know.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, you can see he's underneath. Look, he's got a few Yeah. He's got a few sparkles. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's coming through now. Yeah, just yeah. Oh, great. One of each. That's good. Perfect. All right, then. Over to you. God, they're lovely to deal with, these two. Oh, they're just So, it's super important these are fitted correctly, isn't Yeah, yeah, you don't want anything getting in that line. Where the join is.
It needs to be properly tight. Yeah, properly tight, look. Exactly like that. That's perfect. You're getting quite good at this now. Oh, yeah, a bit of practice. But, you know, seriously, this joint here has to be absolutely perfect. Right, cuz if anything like bailing twine or even horse hair on barbed wire fence can get trapped in this little gap, or even grass is even and can pin the owls down. You know, we're doing this to help and conserve the species, not cause them any issues. But, this is an individual ring number we've got on this one, like all of the owls. And uh that way it can be tracked in the future. So, uh
you know, whether it's found alive, dead, or we know how long it will live, and uh where it's from. But, they're just beautiful, aren't they? Every time we handle them, we just think, "Oh, god, they're nice owls." Yeah, yeah, they always nice, aren't they? They always are, but they're really healthy. Aren't they? They're great. Yeah. All right, guys, zero it in. It was freezing, yeah, just Yeah, it's going to spin. Fixed. Feet have got stuck in the Otherwise, we get our legs stuck in the middle bit. That's it.
These are big lads. Oh, 10. Isn't she? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the heaviest. Yeah, he was 355 oz. She was 410. Oh, that's good. The young birds sometimes weigh more than adults, don't they, at this stage, you know? Yeah, yeah, they do. So, uh all right. Let's get them back into the nest. That's perfect. All right, gorgeous couple of owls. Yeah. So placid. Yeah, they are. Yeah. And one Well fed out there. Well fed and uh And good nick. Did she only have two eggs? Or did she have more eggs than they didn't hatch?
She had more eggs that didn't hatch. Right. Yeah, that's how it works, isn't it, sometimes? And we've got two owlets. There is one excellent there. So, uh It's a dark one, that one, isn't it? Yeah, that's lovely. All right, then. So, that's got them ringed again. So, back into the nest for them. Go get them warm again. Warm, isn't it? We'll get them soon. It is warm, yeah. Right, I've got them back to the nest. But, that's another generation of barn owls that'll hopefully fledge soon. And there we go. And that's the male.
He's going back in, too. Perfect.
