February at Riverview
22 February, 2021. Posted by Aigas Field Centre

It’s been a month of extreme weather here at Aigas. We’ve had snow and temperatures down to a biting -14⁰C, followed by a relative heatwave with the snow melting even up on the hills! Fortunately, a lot of the hardy Highland wildlife seems unaffected, and we’ve had some wonderful sightings. Since our last blog we have been treated to views of a barn owl flying past our house! The low temperatures and snowfall that we’ve been experiencing puts increased pressure on barn owls for several reasons, one: poor insulation means they require more food in colder weather to make up for energy losses, and two: their main mammalian prey is more difficult to locate with snow and ice covering the ground. Barn owls may alter their diet during these harsher times, taking more small birds while small mammals remain difficult to hunt. We were relieved to see the last of the snow melting
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