Little Owl

 

Two female Little Owls incubating one clutch of eggs at Freiston Ings in May 2009. This was the first case described in the UK; there have

been two further instances in Lincolnshire of this occurring for unknown reasons. Photo courtesy of Alan Ball.

 

 

Little Owls were introduced to Britain in the 1870s and have only bred in Lincolnshire for just over 100 years. During the Atlas period of the 1980s the population was estimated at 300-400 pairs. It has remained widely but more thinly spread than Barn Owl, Tyto alba. It is an engaging little bird beloved of birders. With a catholic diet embracing small mammals, birds, insects and worms the Little Owl population is much less vulnerable to food availability cycles than small mammal specialist owls. A ringing nest box scheme operated in Lincolnshire by Alan Ball and Bob Sheppard is thought to be the largest in Western Europe. LBR reports show that between 2014-22 the number of broods ringed ranged from 39 in 2019 to 57 in 2014 with an average of around 45 per year (table, below). Most recoveries are from within the county. Despite detailed specialist knowledge held it is not thought the current Little Owl population in the county can be accurately estimated on present information. Interestingly no Little Owl ringed in Britain has ever been recovered outside the country and none ringed in Western Europe have been recovered in Britain. This suggests that left to nature Little Owls would be missing from our landscape and unable to exploit the obvious niche available to them. In the 2020 season four adult females all ringed between 2011-2014 were all caught at their natal or breeding sites aged between 6-9 yrs., and having been retrapped in similar fashion in 5-9 previous years.

 

Nest box data	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Total number of nests*	80	70	78	90	91	66	65	75	69	67
Failures	16	17	23	26	27	16	10	10	15	12
Broods ringed	57	44	51	50	55	39	46	56	48	49
Chicks ringed	188	108	138	141	152	112	120	150	124	118
Average number of chicks/brood ringed	3.3	2.5	2.7	2.8	2.8	2.9	2.6	2.7	2.6	2.4

 

* Total number of nests = "missed" and "outcome unknown" as well as ringed + failures.

(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included October 2022)