Farming columnist George Hosford had surprise farm guests this summer, prompting a delicate rescue before harvest could begin
Before we could start harvesting this year, we had the small matter of owls in the combine spout to deal with. In May, a barn owl had been spotted entering and leaving the unloading tube of the combine parked up in the tractor shed. We were told it was likely to be a solitary male, and best left to find a new home. As is so often the case, things turned out rather differently.
Several weeks later, as the days were getting longer and the yard was quieter at dusk, we had forgotten all about it … then some odd noises were heard coming from the combine.
More advice was taken, and this time the conclusion was that perhaps there might be chicks in the auger tube.
What kind of crazy bird would lay eggs down a cold metal tube filled with a twisty metal auger? It was also a bit of a problem. No one wants to disturb young chicks, but harvest was rapidly approaching, and we needed to run up the combine to check all was working.
But we clearly couldn’t risk mangling up any chicks, so we eventually decided to slowly turn the auger manually, and see if we could persuade anyone in there to come out.
Sure enough, gradually coming into view were the pale brown feathers of a young barn owl, who we managed to catch and move into the owl box recently installed in the tractor shed.
The number of turns on the pulley that drives the auger meant that the nest must have been at least a metre down the tube. Was there going to be another? We turned the auger a few more times, just in case, and hey presto, out came chick number two!
When I say ‘chick’, I really mean beautiful, fully feathered young adult barn owls – they must have been on the cusp of fledging.
Seeing as they couldn’t possibly have ever seen daylight, they coped remarkably well. How they would have found their way out of the auger tube, a metre or more from the open end, without our assistance, is a good question. And if we had not heard them, and had thrown the auger into gear a few days later, they would have been history.
Fortunately, we managed to get them both into the owl box. The next morning they had managed to jump/fly out and were perching on the wall bars of the shed. After a day or two hanging around and doing some flying practice, they disappeared from the yard, but they have been seen locally on numerous occasions. We think their parents had kept them fed throughout, and will no doubt have taken them out for hunting lessons.
