From the Newsletter [2]…

Owley News - back after great public demand

It was too much to hope that our fabulous Barn Owl year of 2007 would be followed up by another prolific vole year but overall., I suppose that if we hadn't had last years massive numbers, we'd be saying that this was a good year.

After completing most of our first box inspections, RUBOP has 33 boxes with Barn Owls of which 21 are breeding. We've found quite a few boxes with just a single adult and some with a pair but no sign of any eggs. We didn't have any non breeding pairs last year and found no singles either. However, It's not too late and some of these could be just late breeders.

We've found quite a few of last years chicks with eggs and some which we assume are old females which tend to remain sitting tight on the eggs so are not disturbed. However, quite a few established pairs are not only not breeding but seem to have disappeared completely and some areas that have reliably held breeding pairs for the past few years are barren this year with no owls at all. Plumtree, Kinoulton, Hickling and Owthorpe all seem to be Owl less this year. However, having said that. several boxes which have never had Barn Owls in 10 years are occupied this year. There seems to be good numbers of adults around. Many of last years chicks have survived the winter and will go on to breed in the future so the future is bright.

An ongoing problem for all Barn Owl groups is the dreaded Jackdaw. Don't get me wrong, I like Jackdaws, they're cracking little birds, full of character and intelligence. Unfortunately, they love nesting in our boxes and insist on filling them with sticks, rope, fag ends, horse hair, wool and any other rubbish they can pick up before building a grass nest on top of the sticks to lay the eggs in.

Late nesting Barn Owls sometimes lay eggs on top of the sticks but this is rare and we usually remove the sticks to give the chicks more room in the box as they grow. After several years of experimenting., a group down south have designed a Jackdaw proof box. This has a corridor down which a bird entering the nest must negotiate and they say that a Jackdaw with a stick in its beak wouldn't be able to enter the box.

I've just built a couple of these boxes to replace existing boxes that are blighted by Jackdaws and it remains to be seen whether they are effective or not.

An interesting note in the BTO ringing news this weeks was the breaking of the British Barn Owl longevity record. A female found freshly dead on the Isle of Wight in 2006 had been ringed on the island way back in 1992. making it 14 years old, a remarkable age considering that very few birds reach 4 years old; it must be the air down there.

No Barn Owls to ring yet, they've just started to hatch but I do have 4 broods of Little Owls to do in the next week and some Kestrels which need to be done before they get too big; otherwise, it's like putting a ring on a Rottweiler!

Howard Broughton

Last updated: Saturday July 5th 2008

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