Bucks Barn Owls

A shift across to the neighbouring county. The District Council for Aylesbury run a Barn Owl project. This covers a large area of agricultural land, mainly to the west of the town.

The scheme will monitor up to 150 boxes, many of which have been made for us by the inmates at Springhill Prison. To date, we have 50 boxes "occupied" by pairs. Some are in trees ...

... some are in barns ...

... and some are in disused buildings.
 

Yesterday, we visited five spread out sites. At two sites we were able to ring the young and at a further two sites we had to leave the young as they were far too small and were almost "down-less". What we were able to confirm was that the birds are now caching a lot of mice and voles.

So far this season, the total numbers of birds caught has been seven adults plus one control and 19 young, split into 5 broods of two and 3 broods of three.

 AVDC Conservation Officer Paul's first fondle of a Barn Owl chick.

One place we went to has had Barn Owls nesting there for over 25 years. Below is just one of two large heaps of guano on the floor. The female in this box also 'whit-washed' me on her exit!!

 The delay in breeding this season is likely to be as a result of the weather. Firstly, the cold snap in February probably stopped the birds getting into breeding condition. This they have managed to do as the weather warmed up. However, the dryness of the period from March to June has retarded some of the vegetation growth that the small mamal populations rely on for their breeding. Finally, the rains have come and everything now looks 'fine and dandy' for a later than usual breeding season. Let's hope that we don't get a long period of unsettled, i.e. poor hunting, weather.

As the team has been going round to the various landowners, several other nests have come to our attention en passant. The other nests where we have been able to ring the chicks so far are: - Buzzard 1, Kestrel 4, Stock Dove 3, Collared Dove 1, Little Owl 1, Tawny Owl 4, Green Woodpecker 1, Swallow 5, Robin 2, Spotted Flycatcher 2, Jackdaw 4, House Sparrow 1. We have picked up a new mist-netting site, too.