Second Barn Owl Update
An invitation to accompany my devoted owly friend, Howard Broughton on a round of inspections of a few Barn Owl nest boxes couldn’t be missed. The kind thought arose through my daughter, Zoe paying a passing interest in this facet of conservation, but when I announced that the opportunity was upon us, some flashing doubts seemed to cross her mind. Luckily, her mate Miranda was up for it and after a quick change into owly garb we were trundling along in Howard’s old Mercedes 4WD down Lings Lane for a disappointing revenue with…. a Stock Dove, which had taken over an abandoned box, that by now contained both unhatched Barn Owl and Stock Dove eggs; but no fluffy chicks. Five weeks earlier an inspection had revealed a female Barn Owl on eggs but disappointments happen occasionally in years when voles are scarce.
Next farm, next box, but just the one chick; nevertheless a great result because one Barn Owl reared in Rushcliffe is quite a lot better than there would have been without the Barn Owl Project but there was better to come, and that was at Mr Brooks’ farm at Widmerpool where three docile and bewildered babies saw their first light of day.
Howard is licensed by the British Trust for Ornithology to handle and apply rings to this Schedule One protected species.
This permits others to train under his supervision and I supplied the two enthusiastic (but initially cautious) young ladies to experience the pleasures of ornithology, and to the clear delight of Mr Brooks in having five birds in his copse (only three of which were owls) the latter were ringed weighed and returned to their box.
The Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project has restored the population of this fantastic bird to its former numbers: they will very soon ring their 500th chick and an evening walk in the south Nottinghamshire countryside is as likely as not to find one silently quartering field margins in search of voles, and the experience of a prolonged close view is never to be forgotten.
Howard has written a book about the year that over 150 young owls were fledged: The Barn Owl Diaries tells of the highs and lows of Howard’s near single-handed conservation effort and is available for £5 (plus £1 postage outside of Keyworth). Ring me on 0115 9144896 – everything goes into funding the project - if you’ve seen the owl you owe it to RUBOP!