Barn Owls

Oneputt

Sat watching a barn owl quartering the field next to the CL this evening it reminded me how lucky we are to be able watch these incredibly beautiful birds in the wild.  Yesterday one of the wardens at Sculthorpe reserve told us they found one of their barn
owls dead a couple of weeks ago, a post morten indicated that the bird had starved to death!  This is the second case I've heard of in the last couple of weeks which is a tad worrying as with the very mild winter I would have thought there would have been
food available.

Pliers

You're at Barleywood, aren't you? It's a great CL, with almost guaranteed barn owl sightings.

Shame about the loss of the owl at Sculthorpe isn't it. A pal of ours has an owl box on his moorland patch. (Stangtop moor, if you know it), and last year lost all the well grown brood to starvation. Barn owls have bred there successfully for years, strange.

Oneputt

Yes ar Barleywood and the barn owl is nesting across the road in an old railway coach.  They seem to be hunting till around 10 in the morning then back out again by 3 in the afternoon.  

David and Mary

We tried to start our Norfolk trip with a stay at Barlaywood next week but no space so we are at one of the other CLs at South  Creake for Sculthorpe,Titchwell etc, hopefully we might be lucky and have a few interesting sightings, like Oneputt.

Oneputt

D&M hope you have a great time.  Which CL are you at?

brue

I wonder how long Barn Owls live for in the wild? Nice to read about your sightings.

David and Mary

Thanks for the good wishes Oneputt.

We are starting out at 3 acres from Sunday for a week. We are then moving along the coast the following Sunday to another CL just inland from  Blakeney (Galley Hilll Farm) to concentrate on Cley etc. After that we are staying down near Hickling Broad for
a few days.

After that maybe home or we might decide to stop off elsewhere, we will see nearer the time. 

David and Mary

Brue...

According to the Barn Owl Trust

1/ 70% of all Barn Owls that fledge die in the 1st year

2/ The average is thought to be about 4 years, with their known record in Britain is 15 years.

HelenandTrevor

You are very lucky Oneputt, Barn owls are lovely. 

I heard somewhere, probably Spring Watch that owls struggle to hunt in the rain. We have had so much this year, could this be part of the reason why they are dying?

Wherenext

Helen, I think I'm correct in saying that the super quiet wings of owls are not water proof so many die due to hypothermia. What they get in one hand is unfortunately compromised in the other.

HelenandTrevor

Thanks wherenext, I wasn't sure why the owls struggled to hunt in the rain, just that I was sure I'd heard something about it. If the wings aren't waterproof,  they are sure to find it harder to hunt in the rain.

brue

I checked out our local Somerset Barn Owl web cam site which was so successful awhile back but they're having to look for a new site.