Night of the hunter as owls return

After years of decline, barn owls are being helped to make a comeback on farms across the region. Chris Berry reports.

Barn owls have had a pretty rough time over the past 70 years. The drive for food production on farmland during the Second World War saw wildlife habitat take a dive as hedges were ripped out and every spare square inch utilised to feed the nation.

When the drive for barn conversions started in the 1970s a further nail was hammered into the barn owl coffin, followed by new trunk roads and egg thieves adding to their woe. This is said to have brought about a 70 per cent decline in barn owl numbers in the UK.

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Karen Chelsey is waging her own battle to ensure the species has a future. Her day-job is science technician at Wolfreton High School in Hull, but by night and at weekends she is in the company of owls.

"I've been involved for the past five years, I always liked them," she says. "I started to read up about barn owls and found out there had been this massive decline due to changes in their habitat. The barn owls then had nowhere to go." Karen made contact with the Barn Owl Trust based in Devon who put her in touch with other local people. "There are at least three others who are doing a similar thing to me in East Yorkshire and I started training up and getting my permits.

"I started by knocking on farmers' doors saying that I had seen their land and thought it would be suitable for barn owls, because it had the right habitat with rough, tussocky grass. Farmers have been encouraged to enhance wildlife in recent years and many are now involved with stewardship schemes. When I reached the door of the first farm I approached, in South Cave, I was really nervous. I can remember getting back in my car after the farmer had agreed to having a barn owl box on his land and I was really buzzing."

Karen now has upwards of 100 barn owl boxes scattered throughout the East Riding including four on the land of Broomfleet and Faxfleet-based farmer Robert Patchett.

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"The reaction from all of the farmers has been fantastic. I have built up a really good relationship with them all and people like Gordon Hawcroft who farms at Holme on Spalding Moor are so passionate about wildlife on their farms and the impact we are having.

"A lot of the farmers I talk with are just like that and I cannot praise them enough."

Karen's best feeling was when she saw her first set of owlets in the first box she had ever put up. "It was like 'wow' all this hard work and look what has come about. Looking at them made it all seem so worthwhile."

Barn owls' diet includes a high proportion of voles and that's where making sure of the right habitat is essential.

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"The owl will probably kill about three or four voles a night and if they have young to feed, dependent upon how many owlets they have, they will need even more, so the habitat is essential.

"That's why I go to a farm first and assess whether it is right. Then I will set about making a box and installing it either in an existing barn or a tree. I prefer to put boxes into mature trees, although there are some who prefer putting them on poles. It's all about the survival of the fittest. If there isn't enough food around the stronger owlets will eat the weaker ones.

"On average, barn owls lay around three eggs per brood towards the end of May and the female owl sits on them for around 30-31 days. They don't all necessarily hatch off and become owlets and it is often better to have one strong owlet than three that are going to struggle. I start checking the boxes in June and usually find that the female is either on the eggs or the owlets have hatched.

"Each box has an inspection cover on a hinge. The owlets tend to be quite placid and often 'play dead' in your hand, but with any form of wildlife there are risks attached, so I sometimes wear gloves and a hard hat, and put myself in a position where if the bird comes out it is not going to come straight at me.

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"This year I have ringed over 40 owlets and quite a number of the new boxes we put up last year now have owls inside. That gives me another buzz. You feel as though you are getting somewhere."

Until recently she has funded this herself. The Vera Kay Trust is now helping out. "It has allowed me to do more and we are now seeing a high percentage of the barn owl boxes being used regularly.

"I'm pretty low-key about all this really and tend to go about what I'm doing quite quietly.

"I don't think many people know I exist, but I also absolutely love it.

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"This is my bit of escape. It's the life I would love to lead. My dream for me and my family would be to have a house in the country with my own barn owl box so that I could go and watch them flying around."

www.barnowltrust.org.uk

CW 23/10/10

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