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:
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.