The diary entry is a bit older and the Eurasian Eagle Owls Tristan and Isolde are back and busy. Like last year, there's already an Egyptian Goose that also chose the Castle Ruins as her nesting site. Both parties aren't happy about their neighbour.
From EGE OWLS Diary, Feb 11, 2026
Dear eagle owl enthusiasts,
The eagle owl breeding season is now just around the corner. After prolonged periods of frost, there are now regular frost-free nights, and on a few days the sun's rays have even managed to warm up the south-facing eagle owl nesting sites a little.
The breeding site in the castle ruins is located in a milder region, and courtship activities are in full swing. Egg laying could take place within the next ten days. However, there is now great unrest in the ‘castle ruins arena’ almost every evening.
The Egyptian geese
In 2018, I was still rarely able to observe Egyptian geese in the approximately 200 potential eagle owl habitats I monitored in the Eifel region. In the meantime, the population of this invasive species has grown dramatically. Egyptian geese are now ubiquitous in the rock faces of river valleys, on bridge piers and in quarries, gravel pits and clay pits with small bodies of water. Since 2020, I have repeatedly observed eagle owls abandoning their broods due to Egyptian geese. Of the approximately 120 to 180 broods started each year, up to six breeding failures have been proven to be caused by Egyptian geese (+ unreported cases). Some of the breeding niches used by eagle owls for many years are very prominent in the rock faces. Egyptian geese flying past can hardly help but be interested in these ‘luxury apartments’. Even if a female eagle owl is already brooding there, some geese fly to these niches and drive the eagle owls away from their nests. In some cases, the geese later breed there successfully, in other cases they are young, inexperienced geese that are only exploring possible breeding sites without any serious intention of breeding.
In breeding areas with many similarly suitable nesting niches, the two species competing for nesting sites can develop parallel breeding traditions. On other steep walls, eagle owls regularly abandon their broods. How exactly the conflicts between the species play out has hardly been observed before – and never in such detail as in ‘our’ castle ruins. There have been no documented cases of eagle owls successfully driving away Egyptian geese. In this respect, our webcam is doing pioneering work.
There is no doubt that the Egyptian goose population is impacting the eagle owl population. However, I have not yet been able to identify any significant impact on the reproduction rate of large owls. Many other additional factors weigh more heavily as causes of unsuccessful breeding, and the eagle owl population is stable.
Breeding Egyptian geese and their eggs are protected by animal welfare legislation. Any kind of ‘intervention’ during the breeding season is prohibited.
Our observations of events lead us to take sides with one species or the other. An ‘I'm for the geese’ or ‘I'm against the geese’ may trigger heated discussions in our minds and on YouTube in the live stream chat or comments. However, this has no effect on the animals involved or on the processes taking place in the ruins.
The only way to ‘remove’ adult Egyptian geese in North Rhine-Westphalia is for the hunting ground owner to shoot them between 16 October and 31 January. Juvenile Egyptian geese may be shot all year round.
In my opinion, it is questionable to what extent shooting until 31 January in habitats such as our castle ruins would make a difference for the eagle owls. As we have seen, there are other geese that are ready to take over the breeding site. If these are young birds from the previous year that are inexperienced in breeding, they could possibly cause even more disturbance in the ruins. They would be less focused in choosing a niche and more hesitant or even unwilling to breed. As a result, the activities of the geese could cause more disturbance than we are currently experiencing. (...)
There are two cameras allowing you to watch the owls (and the Egyptian Goose).
They have 2 cameras providing livestreams from the ruins:
Thank you. It looks like an interesting source. I will look into it some more. It seems to rely on volunteers and that might lead to strange translations maybe also AI? - I got one that's definitely ...colourful.
I will procede to use it cautiously.
Guess it is the "missing" contact to relatives in Germany. Iirc the ancestors of Pennsylvania Dutch moved fairly early to the States. If you have no ties there's not much reason to think of it.
Two people from my mother's side moved to the US in the early 1920s. The family kept in touch for as long as the first generation was still alive. Their children quickly lost interest. That was before the internet made communication easier. It would be almost impossible to keep up with family abroad after another hundred+ years.
The ongoing politics and Media coverage are exhausting and to a certain degree are meant to keep us distracted. Keeping people enganged in (online) fights is a strategy. Thankfully we don't have to play along and instead can focus on the important things, like owls :)
I did call a bat hotline and found out who would be qualified in my area to check the bat's health if necessary. And I found someone online who is working with bats and in his opinion the bat in the pics looked healthy and alert enough to release itself. I left her a way to escape from the garage and the nesting box I kept her in, in case she felt like leaving. And she was gone after a few hours.
I wouldn't really be allowed to keep a bat, a wild animal and member of an endangered species. From your work at the rescue you're familiar with how stupid well-meaning people without proper education can act. If it had needed medical attention or other care I would have brought it to a suitable place.
Lol oh my! I only got normal ones like "a bird in hand..." and such.
We supposedly have relatives in Switzerland. I know my grandmother used to regularly write letters there, but other than that they exist, or did at one point, I don't know anything about them. On the German side, we're all relatively close geographically for the most part, as they all used to farm this area. I think all the farms have been sold off by this point, but most relatives are still in the area. Nobody really gets together though.
I scroll through all a few times a day to see what's going on, but most stuff I'll just read the headline and scroll by or catch a quick glimpse of the comments to see what the general reaction is, but I don't interact with it anymore. I feel it's just all the same over and over again.
I wouldn't say I've disengaged from politics, but I feel as a citizen any vague notion of influence a regular person had in the direction of our leaders has been crushed. There doesn't seem to be much point in interacting with our officials, and other than waiting to vote in the upcoming primary, I don't know much that would impact my feelings on things. There's no Republican I need to pay attention to. It's all lies, and any I'd consider decent left during Trump's first term. I don't like a lot of the Democrats either, as they seem ineffectual, but with our voting system, the primary seems the only spot where I need to focus on making an actual judgement on who would be decent.
I read the foreign stories more carefully, as stuff like Europe's exploration of online ID is something I imagine is going to work its way over here shortly. Also seeing how everyone else's leaders react to America's bad behavior feels more significant to me since it seems another country resisting us is the only thing that could move the needle on our bad behavior. I just try to learn more who the leaders around the world are and more how voting and representation works in other places. That stuff I still find interesting, even as nearly every country seems to be on a similar path as we are with trending to the right.
I didn't mean to imply anything negative. I just didn't know how long you had it. You had said that was all the pics you had then, so I didn't know if you were still holding it. I know we aren't a 24 hour a day center, and some people don't have transportation, so we have a licensed group of wildlife transporters we refer people to, so I didn't know if you had just found it and were looking for a place to take it, etc. I may not be as clear as intended, the lack of good sleep is really starting to impact me more and more.
We have people do some crazy things. Someone dropped off a bat after hours and put it in an Amazon box. They didn't leave it at the front door either, but off to the side of the building near the parking lot, coincidentally where the packages are usually dropped off, so not only did this poor bat sit out overnight in the cold, but no one grabbed it first thing in the morning because everyone thought it was just a routine delivery of supplies. I am glad your little buddy just needed some warmth and you were there to provide it.
Same-ish. The exceptions are birthdays of the older generation and the inevitable funerals.
I try to do that only twice or thrice per day. Usually I combine it with looking at news/reports and maybe post or comment. But I tend to avoid fights or communities that are more about drama than actual content or analyses.
I feel you. News from the US are disheartening and sad most of the time. But I chose to believe that people can still make a difference.
I'm really unhappy about some developments in Germany and how our politicians are dealing with it. So sharing news or talking to people irl and fighting some of the misinformation or straight up lies is something that I can do.
No worries! That’s not how I understood your question. I hope I didn't come off as impolite. Guess we're having our first moment where cultural differences play into communication (and me not being a native speaker might add to that). Germany is considered a low context culture. The US is leaning more towards a higher context culture. So Germans tend to take most spoken/written communication at face value, while people from the US tend to also rely on unspoken clues. If you ask someone from Germany how they're doing - expect an honest, potentially detailed answer. 🫣😂
Well-meaning and making smart decisions doesn't always go hand in hand. I hope your poor bat did well after its delayed delivery.
Thank you. I was happy that I've found it and could provide shelter. And simply glad that it did so well and didn't need additional help after all.
It tends to make me nervous when I hit these moments with other people, but once I learn I didn't mess something up, it's very helpful to learn these less direct aspects of how we're used to speaking to people. Even with people that are native English speakers, sometimes people will use what to me are harsher or abrupt tones, or give somewhat insulting nicknames, but it can often be them showing they are more comfortable with you or see you as close enough to address you how they would with family. That is always a challenge for me, because my family was insulting and sometimes physically violent, so it can be a big hurdle for me trying to understand how their friendship works.
Thankfully with the conversations starting around fun animal pics, I can generally assume anyone I'm talking with here is starting off from a friendly place.
I'm honestly not sure where it would have been kept. I'm thinking in one of the office rooms upstairs, since they are one of our rabies vectors here, so they should be kept in a place where someone not vaccinated shouldn't come into contact with it. If someone not vaxxed comes into contacts with one of our rabies species, it is supposed to be euthanized so it can be tested, so we want to naturally avoid that ever happening.
It is both a bit of a relief, but also a little sad that we have so many animals that most I will never know what happens to them. With the large birds though, they're usually alone and I'll notice right away if they're missing. Sometimes they get taken to one of the rehabber's home to get more intensive or 24 hour care, or just a more quiet environment, but often it means something did not work out.