Tawny owls Bomber & Luna raise four rescued owlets alongside their own two chicks.

Date filmed: May 2023

Watch tawny owls Bomber & Luna interact live on my nest cam:    • Live From Fotherdale | Robert E Fuller   and follow their story in this playlist:   • Tawny Owls  Luna & Bomber | Wild Liv...  

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ABOUT THIS FILM
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Foster owl family
Tawny owls Luna & Bomber are used to fostering chicks, so when I introduce a rescued owlet into the nest they take it in their stride.

Welcoming Solar
Within moments of meeting her new charge, Luna begins to feed it, and when dad Bomber sees the rescue chick, he lovingly preens it. Bomber & Luna's own chicks, Rocket & Nova, are also happy to accept their new foster sibling, and, in keeping with the 'stellar' theme, I name this new youngster Solar.

The outside world
It is not long before the eldest tawny owl chick, Rocket, climbs its way up to the nest entrance and begins spending its days looking outside. Nova soon follows suit, but Solar seems to prefer tiding up indoors.

First flight
After a month in the nest, Rocket takes his first leap out of the nest and spends the night outside on the branch. Now Bomber & Luna stay close, delivering food to him on the nearby branches, whilst also continuing to feed Nova and Solar in the nest.

Younger owlets first flights
On the 13th May, Nova leaps out of the nest, followed the next day by Solar. It's amazing to see them out in the trees.

A 2nd rescued owlet
The owls are out of the nest when a second rescue arrives. I keep to the theme and name this owlet Pluto. I place Pluto in the now empty nest and wait for Bomber & Luna to take over.

Pluto calls
And as night falls, Pluto uses its instinct and starts to call. At first, the calls seem to fall on deaf ears, but it's not long before Bomber arrives, with prey in beak. And once the tawny owl adults know Pluto is in the nest, these food deliveries continue.

Pluto's first flight
It's not long before Pluto takes the leap of faith and jumps from the nest. With four mouths to feed in the trees, I put out extra food for the foster family.

MORE rescued owlets
But then I get two more tawny owlets. These two are old enough to go straight into the tree canopy near the other owlets. Although this seems a lot for the parent owls, thankfully they don't seem to be able to count and I’m confident their instincts will take over.

Stock dove
Although the nest is now empty, when a stock dove tries to settle there, Luna quickly evicts it. In the stress of the attack, the dove sheds her feathers this defence mechanism is known as a 'fright moult' and is a bit like the way a lizard drops its tail.

Tawny owlets return
Luna's reasons for continuing to defend her now empty nest becomes clear when the tawny owl fledglings arrive to spend time back inside the nest.

It's been great watching the owls grow up and I now have my fingers crossed for another clutch next year.


ABOUT ME
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I am a British wildlife artist and filmmaker on a mission to share my love for wildlife with the world. As well as creating detailed animal film and art portraits, I promote wildlife tours around the world and do all I can to help conserve and protect wildlife here at my home in Yorkshire. I hope that by putting nature in the frame I can foster a deep love for wildlife amongst my followers.

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CHAPTERS
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00:00 Introduction
00:35 Solar introduced
03:10 First view outside
05:40 Rocket fledges
06:24 Rocket in the trees
08:28 Nova fledges
09:22 Solar Fledges
09:35 Fledglings in trees
10:45 New chick Pluto
14:19 Two new foster chicks
16:06 Stock doves take Beech
17:54 Fledglings return
19:38 Review

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© Robert E Fuller

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