What A Hoot!

Thanks to dedicated volunteers like Norman, barn owls are thriving on farms once more

Come and spend a day ringing owls with me,” suggested Norman from Bucks Owl and Raptor Group (BORG) when I asked him about their work. A week later, I joined him for a day in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

We set off in the BORG Land Rover, equipped with ladders, scales, cotton bags and other bird-monitoring equipment, and headed to farms in North Bucks where nesting boxes were located.

“We’re trying to compensate for habitat destruction,” Norman explained. “Lots of trees that once provided nesting sites for barn owls have been cut down. Barns and outhouses have been transformed into offices, accommodation or industrial units, so barn owls can’t use them any more.

“We’re erecting nesting boxes to mitigate loss of habitat, and working with landowners to improve conditions for the birds in the wild. Sometimes ‘change of use’ planning permission requires an ecologist to visit. If barn owls are there, the owner may be required to put up barn owl boxes nearby.”

BORG volunteers have put up over 700 nesting boxes across Buckinghamshire, so the local barn owl population is doing well.

After an hour, we pulled into a field, surrounded by 50 curious cows, closed the gate and drove to a distant tree. A buzzard circled overhead.