http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article347815.ece
Barn owls are flying high again
By David Randall
Published: 26 February 2006
Barn owls, the birds most fretted over by the nation's
conservationists, are at last responding to years of tender care and
attention. Last year, a record number of chicks fledged, and the
species, once in seemingly unstoppable decline, is now doing better
than it has for decades.
The British Trust for Ornithology and the Barn Owl Conservation Network
say 2005 was a "bumper" year, especially in Essex, west Oxfordshire,
Cheshire and Somerset. Here, some pairs raised three separate broods,
and from elsewhere came reports of the earliest hatchings for 20 years.
Cornwall has had a "significant increase" to about 360 pairs, and on
Skomer Island in Wales the bird returned for the first time since 1897.
There is hope that the dark days of decline may now be over. Persecuted
in the 19th century, barn owls found the next one even less congenial,
having to cope with loss of meadows, chemicalised farming, a run of
harsh winters, Dutch elm disease destroying nest sites, the demolition
or conversion of barns, and that great killer of these low-flying
hunters, heavy traffic on major roads. The upshot was a population that
collapsed from 12,000 pairs in 1932 to fewer than 4,000 by the 1980s.
But recent years have been kinder. First, a run of dryish, benign
winters meant an abundance of voles, the owls' favourite food. Second,
campaigners and farmers set aside and maintained more of the birds'
preferred habitat of rough grassland. And third is the remarkable
conservation effort to save the species. The result, says Dave Leech,
head of the BTO's nest record scheme, is that 2005 "was a very good
season. We strongly suspect that numbers are higher than for several
decades. As long as the climate doesn't change adversely, the prospects
are rosy".
No other species has had anything like this pampering. The BTO's
monitoring programme is one among an extraordinary number of bodies and
schemes devoted to the bird, ranging from the Hawk and Owl Trust, and
its Barn Owl Conservation Network, to dozens of local groups.
The most palpable results of this are the 20,000-plus barn owl nesting
boxes in British farms and woods - the equivalent of four for every
pair. Putting up these boxes represents a huge amount of volunteer
hours. Barn owl nesting boxes are not little cubby-holes nailed to a
tree, but the size of a dog's kennel.
Next month, around 100 conservationists and volunteers will meet to
swap ideas at Britain's biennial Barn Owl Symposium. They will have
something to celebrate, but experts caution that a few cold and wet
winters could yet check the bird's progress. Jason Ball, the UK
co-ordinator for the Barn Owl Conservation Network, said: "We can't be
complacent, especially when you consider most nest sites rely on human
support."
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