The Lincolnshire Bird Club

It would appear that the heavy continuous rain and strong winds in early June has had a devastaing effect on Barn Owls, with the adults unable to hunt for 2-3 days. From recent checks made in South Lincs with Bob Sheppard, I would estimate that 80% to 90% of chicks aged three weeks or over have starved to death during that period. Those Barn owls that were on eggs or small chicks seem OK. It would be interesting to know what other Barn Owl workers have found elsewhere, but I expect that this will be quite widespread.

Alan

From the few sites i know along the coast its as bad or worse Alan
regards John.

I am due to revisit 5 boxes at the beginning of July which were on very small young or eggs on June 1st. These reports don't fill me with confidence.

I visited four boxes this evening and the outcome is not good. Out of the total of 10 eggs and 3 young from my previous visit, 2 boxes were completely empty, another held just one 2 week old chick and the other had three week old chicks. I only hope these survive.

Slightly better news tonight - the single owlet was ringed but only 2 of the 3 in the other box survived. I have a theory that those Barn Owls who nested in and around farmyards fared better than those in pole boxes adjacent to watercourses. Because of the high water levels the voles were flooded out and the adults were unable to find prey whereas the "farmyard" birds supplemented their diet on mice etc. despite the torrential rain. Any comments?

We have also found that in periods of poor weather or low food availability, those Barn Owls nesting in and around buildings do better than those in exposed poleboxes. It could be that the odd food item can still be found in a building when it's too wet to hunt outside. Alternatively it's possible that less obvious boxes in buildings are often occupied by older and more experienced birds and that those in exposed pole boxes are ofetn less experienced first-year birds. There's obvioulsy much still to learn.