Little Owls

A Round Up of 2008

We have had a fantastic summer. The weather has been perfect and all our guests have been able to enjoy the gardens, the pool and the local area.

We have now moved into "L'Ancienne" (the old house) . It has taken quite a bit of work but downstairs is almost complete. The new roof and renovation of the upstairs is ongoing.

L'Ancienne

We have added three more chickens to our little flock- the new girls are black copper marans. They are very pretty but a little lacking in the common sense department. We now average 5 eggs a day. Brilliant in the summer when we have guests but a little eggcessive in the winter.

The girls out for a stroll.

The gardens have been stunning this summer. many of the plants that we have added seem to be coming into their own.

We have also added a children's play area to the garden.

Little Owls
During the late spring we noticed our resident Little Owls became noisier (particularly when the cats crossed the courtyard at dusk).

We soon discovered why- they had chosen to construct their burrow above the doorway into our house. Apparently the biggest babies often fall out of the nest before they can fly.

On several occasions we had to pop the fledgling babies back into the burrow to protect them from the cats.

Scooby was a brilliant help- on two occasions he pointed out the little chicks and stood on guard until we retrieved them.

At least three owlets successfully fledged over a period of two or three weeks.