The return of the barn owl to nature

The members of the Dobříš Natural History Association have been involved in the project of returning the Barn Owl back to our nature for the third year. The young owls that were born to Barn Owls in the Penthea Rescue Station in Prague Cholupice are preparing for life in the wild.
On the enclosed land of an agricultural building kindly provided by a local farmer, the owls are learning to hunt their most common prey, the field vole. Voles can't be bred like mice, so there's no choice but to catch them in the wild. In fields and meadows. We use two methods to catch voles. Water flushing and deep ploughing. We bring water to the field in jerry cans (if there is no source on site) and pour water into the holes to force the voles out of their burrows. Then it all depends on the observation and agility of the hunter 😉 The second method is more effective, but we have to find out where the farmers are ploughing. We agree with the tractor driver and then we run behind the tractor in the furrow and catch the voles. This non-Olympic discipline is quite demanding on the physique 🙂 .
The voles are then kept in a barrel of hay where they have to be fed so they don't eat each other. They are gradually delivered to a large plastic tub in the barn where the owls hunt them.
As these owls are trained to hunt the food that nature offers them, they are much more prepared for life in the wild and their chances of survival increase.
This was confirmed in 2020 when we found a nesting pair of Barn Owls during a regular cleaning of the boxes that are placed in farm buildings and used for owls. To our surprise and immense delight, the female of this pair had a ring. She was a young female, released by us a year ago and was sitting on 9 eggs. 8 chicks hatched and were successfully raised by the parents. To make matters worse, this pair nested again that year and four chicks were born. The second half of the summer of 2020 was very rainy and food was desperately scarce. The weakest chick did not survive. So on the second nesting, the parents brought out three young owls.
All the activities of the "Training camp for live food hunting" of catching field voles and releasing barn owls into the wild are done by the members of the Dobris Natural History Society free of charge and in their free time. It's hundreds of hours of work and hundreds of kilometres driven. The farmers also provide the space for the "camp" and for the owl boxes free of charge and, in addition, tolerate visits of ornithologists in their premises necessary for feeding the owls, inspections, cleaning, repairing the boxes and other activities related to this project.
The reward for everyone involved in this project is the good feeling of restoring at least some balance back to our nature.

[@pavelsimecek5755]

Krásná reportáž! A hlavně klobouk dolů před všemi lidmi, kteří se na tomto projektu podílí a hodně štěstí a úspěšně vyvedených sov do dalších let. A samozřejmě díky i všem zemědělcům, kteří tyto projekty podporují a hospodaří s respektem k přírodě!

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Děkujeme.

[@alenamatejkova4256]

Tak to jsem ještě neviděla takhle chytat hraboše... No ale bez rukavic? To je dost risk 😲Obdivuji práci všech a ať se daří i sovičkám 🦉😆🍀😂🍀👍

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Pepík je odolný. Toho nějaký ten kousanec neodradí 😀 Díky.

[@ValkoBranislav]

Ešte že sa nájdu fanatici, ktorý sú ochotní robiť aj takéto činnosti. Držím palce sovičkám, dravcom a tým úžasným ľuďom. Nech sa všetkým darí...

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Děkujeme. Nás to baví, pomáháme rádi 😉

[@Uncagethewild]

Wonderful documentary 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Thank you 🙂

[@firenature9166]

Gratuluji k 900 subs

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Díky.

[@vtacijakub]

Robíš super videa zaslužiš si milion odberov

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Díky. Snad to vyjde 😉

[@BIRDWORLD1]

@@vtacijakub Děkujeme.

[@BIRDWORLD1]

@@vtacijakub 😁 no jo. Sova pálená zní trochu strašidelně.

[@radusodehnal8623]

Ministerstvo zemědělství sema Oto starat aby se netrávilo, a nedávat těm dement dotace.

[@kajakralicek8822]

Na začátku my odumřeli uši😂

[@kajakralicek8822]

mi

[@BIRDWORLD1]

Sová pálená nemá zrovna melodický projev 😁 a mláďata vypadají také jako z hororu 😂

[@radusodehnal8623]

Je to hezké co děláte když to zemědělci všechno otráví tak to je úplně zbytečná práce.

[@BIRDWORLD1]

My si nemyslíme, že naše práce je zbytečná. Proto to děláme. Mnoho farmářů se k přírodě chová šetrně a s úctou. Nejsou všichni stejní. Tak jako všichni lidé.