The Barn Owl Group
The Group operates throughout West Berkshire with most of the activity in the Pang and Kennet Valleys. It was set up in the late 1990’s when the first boxes were installed in the Pang Valley as a local response to a national crash in Barn Owl numbers. Over time more boxes have been added firstly in the Kennet Valley then throughout wider West Berkshire. We now look after over 200 boxes.
One of the main causes of the crash was loss of nesting habitat due to dead and dying trees with suitable holes being felled on safety grounds and traditional barns being converted to homes or offices. A modern Barn does not have the beams required and are often sealed to be bird proof. This means over 85% of Barn Owls now rely on nest boxes.
Barn owls need good habitat to prosper and this means access to rough tussocky grassland where their main prey species, the short-tailed vole can breed successfully. The availability of the short-tailed vole can vary widely from year to year meaning one year we can have over 100 chicks fledge and the next we are down to a handful.
All barn owl monitoring activities are carried out under procedures laid down by Natural England. The group hold a Schedule 1 Disturbance Licence with experienced volunteers named on it as Authorised Agents. The licence holder is required to submit an annual return of findings as a condition of the licence. Volunteers are split into teams under a team leader. Each team look after 10 to 20 boxes. Boxes are visited and if occupied will be revisited for ringing and then an end of season check. The team leader submits results to the licence holder for inclusion in the final report.
Outside of the breeding season a small team of skilled volunteers carry out site surveys. maintenance work and put up new boxes. We are fortunate to have a few skilled carpenters in the group who can make and repair boxes as well as sourcing boxes from partnerships with a local men’s shed and the Englefield Estate.
We have a small number of members who are qualified by the British Trust for Ornithology to fit chicks with identification rings and we try to have as many barn owl chicks as possible ringed to help in research into the species. We also contribute data to the Barn Owl Trust’s “State of the UK Barn Owls” annual report.
There is no fee to join the Barn Owl Group and its not all work and no play as we have an annual social evening. If you are thinking of volunteering please click here, If you are a landowner thinking of hosting a Barn Owl Box please click here.
If you would like to give barn owling a try contact Cathy McEwan at cjm48cjr@gmail.com