Barn owls

[Jdeere6910]

Admittedly I am not a huge fan of the RSPB, I don't like their stance on farmers and how they seem to pander to their main supporters. So the claim that most bird species are decline, in my opinion is a load of cobblers. We seem to have loads f small birds, especially skylarks. But what got me to post this was watching a pair of barn owls hunting in the grass field behind our house. We have another pair, as well as numerous Tawny's and little owls. Not too far away we have some long and short eared owls. So does everyone else see barn owls as much as I (think according to the mighty RSPB) do?

Also this picture was a quick snap with my phone, but I'm really pleased with it

[chris.watson]

i see a barn owl every couple of weeks or so around here where i live. magestic to watch. you are so lucky, i have lived in the countryside all my life so far, and have never seen a pair together.

[robbo]

I don't know about Owls but on the subject of birds, I have noticed a massive rise in the number of Magpies and the subsequent fall in the number of song birds. Sometimes the black and white pests are seen in flocks of 25+ birds, somebody please persuade those well meaning, but ill informed individuals to allow them to be culled.

[chris.watson]

well robbo, on our farm i put a larsen trap out from march until start of june to catch the maggies. i started 4 years ago, and as we are a small-ish 550 acres, the first year i caught 21, second year 34, last year a massive 52 and this year only 16. we have seen a definate improvement in bird numbers by controlling corvids, and the game strips provide grub in the winter. with so many shoots packing up all over the country, corvids are running amok, namely magpies and carrion crows.

[Tractorman810]

Got a pair of owls that love to sit in the oak tree in the back garden some nights , got no idea where they nest mind unless they have some nest boxes up in the woods the other side of the valley, very unusal to not see them or at least hear them once or twice a week.

[robbo]

I wish I could get away with it Chris, unfortunately the local townies don't see the need to cull the corvids to protect the more vulnerable species, especially because of my job, I would be in serious trouble. I have thought of buying an air rifle but Mrs R has strongly objected

[Jdeere6910]

I once saw 5 barn owls, a tawny and a little owl in the space of 10 minutes on a walk. I do feel fortunate to live in a mixed farming area where most land s keepered for shooting so pest control I'd important. I think it's a shame you can't control the corvods mike, could it be down to cats as well?

[powerrabbit]

Unfortunateley here in my locality the majority of the old granite Dartmoor stone barns have been turned into domestic dwellings and in so doing has driven out 99% or more of the barn owl poulation and instead of being aware of and observing that there are pairs of barn owls in residence, say nothing and do nothing, like incorporating an owl box into the conversion, block up every hole and destroy their habitat and nesting sites so unfortunateley now sighting even a single barn owl is a very rare occurance.

[chris.watson]

I wish I could get away with it Chris, unfortunately the local townies don't see the need to cull the corvids to protect the more vulnerable species, especially because of my job, I would be in serious trouble. I have thought of buying an air rifle but Mrs R has strongly objected

when you say you would be in trouble robbo, dont think it is against the law to use a larsen trap, because it isnt.[you probably know that, in your proffesion]. under the game and conservation act, larsen traps are legal as long as the call bird is fed, watered and has a perch and some shelter and is checked at least once every 24 hrs. every year i always let the call bird out free again at the end of the trapping campaign, as i think it has deserved a second chance. if it is stupid enough to get caught next year.... he will regret it!

[James T]

I'm an ex-employee of the RSPB many years ago with a keen interest in wildlife and farming (obviously, being on here!). I also live on a farm. I wasn't aware they had a 'stance on farmers'. I don't think that small birds being in decline is a load of 'cobblers' - in some parts of Scotland birds such as Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows have declined dramatically due to habitat loss, some of it through agriculture, some through housing developments etc. The Corn Bunting is reduced to a mere fraction of its range and it used to be a widespread species - although before my time! There can be no doubt that agriculture (at least in part) led to this decline.

As for the corvid issue, yes I can understand reasons for control in the countryside. However, Magpies have simply exploited the ample food sources available to them - whether it be garden birds, our careless management of waste or the vast number of gamebirds released into the countryside. I personally would like to see more research done into the effect of the domestic cat on songbird numbers In my experience people in towns/suburbia, they are hysterical when a Magpie comes in to their garden and makes off with a few nestlings (sometimes from nests of species such as Blackbirds which are in poorly-sited positions) but when 'tiddles' comes back with a half-dead bird 'awww, he's only bringing a present'. Hmmm....double standards? And let's not forget, other species such as Woodpeckers can take nestlings too...

It's great to see the owls hunting - Barn Owls seem to have recovered in part here after the 2010 winter.

[Tractorman810]

hes a pic of a barn owl i got last year while away, ok its captive at banham zoo, but still, its my screen shot on the work laptop such elegant birds

[chris.watson]

the biggest threat to birds this year is the awfull spring and early summer weather, to wet and cold. james t you make some good points, and i respect your view. another big predator after eggs is the pesky grey squirel. numbers here in Essex are out of control.great picture sean!!

Edited June 25, 2012 by chris.watson

[James T]

Yes indeed, Chris. The weather seems to have taken a toll here - Swifts seem very few and far between. The Grey Squirrel is another one which people seem to have a soft spot for despite its activities!

[powerrabbit]

There has been a very noticeable decline in certain species of birds and other wildlife in my location although farming practices have not changed that much in decades. I see less now of Skylarks, Barn Owls and particularly Green Plovers or 'Peewits' as we know them, they used to be very numerous but have seen none at all now for more than 20 years. I'm more inclined to think that most of these birds have in this area suffered a natural decline or have just bu***rd off to elsewhere. The Tawny Owl, Magpies, other corvids, Seagulls and Badgers have had and do have a dramatic affect on ground nesting birds, especially the wild Pheasant population. Badgers have also been in the main responsible for the dramatic decline in the Bumblebee population, I very often come across Bumblebee nests that have been dug out of the hedges with a lot of dead and dying bees lying around the excavation, having said that though, it's a double edged sword as the Badgers also dig out all the wasps nests in the hedges as well and we don't mind them destroying them. Last year at this time, for the first time ever, we have House Martins nesting under the eaves of the thatch on the house, last year they built 2 nests, this year they have re-occupied those and built 4 more so they are on the increase. There was a little bit of discussion on 'Springwatch' on the tv a couple of weeks ago where Chris Packham was slating the domestic ****** for the decline in song and garden bird populations, especially in urban gardens, that didn't go down very well with the general public!

[Leakeyvale]

We have one pair of Barn owls at one end of our village in an old wooden barn and another pair that use an owl box; one of several that the farmer has installed. A pair of Tawny owls live close to my house and the male bird once tried to land on my head when I was walking the dogs very early one morning! Both birds fly close to my house when hunting and have been known to come right up to my bedroom window. There used to be Little owls at the other end of the village but I have not seen one for a number of years although a friend says she hears them occasionally.

This year my garden has been full of Tree sparrows. I had around 20 in the garden the other evening. I have lived here for 20 years and have never seen more than one or two at a time until this year. But one bird is missing altogether - the House Martin. Specifically two houses in our village have always had 12 nests between them and this year they are all empty - not a single bird has been seen. Perhaps it is the lack of mud as we had a very dry spring and the local lakes and ponds were drying out. I had to top up my garden pond (which is not very big) and a pair of mallards took up residence that day and stayed for a week or so until the rain came!

[chris.watson]

tim, you make a good point about farming practices. i would like to add, that in the last ten years farming has never been so wildlife freindly.i used to plough with the last headland furrow almost in the ditch, but now leave a decent brew[verge] all wet ditches have 6 or 12 metre buffers. spraying has, in my opinion, never been safer[ we all remember ddt]. pee-wits are low on numbers here in essex but are slowly making a small comeback. skylarks are very common on our farm, usually seen in the continuous wheat cropped fields, and we dont leave 'skylark patches'. years ago, back in the 70's, all the farms around here had a game keeper. these people, rightly or wrongly, persecuted hawks, corvids, stoats, weasels, squirels, hedgehogs, badgers, foxes and the local cats if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. a good friend of mine who was a keeper on a wild bird game shoot in our village[he is now 70] says that the hedgehog is the biggest threat to ground nesting birds. with so much of the countryside now not being monitored for these bird predators,and with the bad weather,wild bird numbers are going to struggle sometimes. dont get me wrong, i would never want to see hawks killed,as i think their comeback is the only good thing to come out of the demise of the game keeper, but everything else on my list, if left uncontrolled, will just make the situation worse for wild birds. hawks actually help if anything, especially buzzards, as they will eat corvids. the RSPB have said in the past that mankind is the biggest threat to birb numbers in the U.K. well, if mankind, in there millions, didnt spend a fortune on grub for the birb tables of this land, birds would be even worse off than they are now.

Edited June 26, 2012 by chris.watson

[powerrabbit]

I agree with you on the human point Chris, perhaps some of them should be controled as well?!!!! Having said that, I also agree on the point about bird tables and the feeding of wild birds, it is said that in any normal year, winter mainly, that up to 80% of all species of birds hatched in that year will not survive but with more and more people puting out food for birds in their gardens now that up to 60% will survive due to being fed. My brother puts out food in his garden for the birds, feeders hung in the Laburnum tree just outside his kitchen window, he puts peanuts in these feeders, he's tried bird seed but they just won't touch the seed. The birds that come into the garden to feed are 90% Blue***s and others such as Nuthatches, Coal ****,house sparrows, finches, (mostly Green Finches) and also the resident Spotted Woodpeckers, Blackbirds and the Robins and also some of the Finches tend to hop around under the feeders on the ground and pick up what the others drop. It's most interesting to watch them feeding as there is a definite 'pecking order' in who gives way to who, the little birds usually give way to the bigger ones first but they all get their fair share. Putting out mealworms is good for all as well, all the birds I've mentioned bar the Woodpeckers have a healthy appe***e for these and they also attract Tree Creepers. We don't seem to have much problem, in the garden anyway, with hawk or magpie predation but the cat, that's another thing, but thankfully he doesn't terrorise the birds much at all, he prefers going off rabbiting.

[Leakeyvale]

I have had a kestrel catch a wood pigeon outside my French windows and have seen a sparrowhawk take a blue tit off a birdbath. Kites and Buzzards seem to favour rabbits and I have had a red kite land in front of my car to make off with a road kill rabbit as well. I have only ever seen magpies feeding on road kills which are numerous. Just before the pheasant season starts I have seen 15 or more freshly killed pheasants in a 10 metre stretch of road (I do believe some motorist make a sport of running them down) and without the carrion eaters we would be stinking! I know magpies predate songbirds and game birds but they also keep us clean as we have few other corvids in the area where I live.

[chris.watson]

good points sue, sparrow hawks taking a blue ***, as harrowing as it is to watch, is just part of nature is it not. its what they feed on. magpies do eat a small amount of road kill, but around here its the foxes that do most of the clearing up. the stoat ,it is said, is fairly bullet proof as no predator will go near it for a fight to the death will ensue, which often sees the stoat the winner.the same can be said about grey squirels. your so lucky to have the red kites in your area, i have only ever seen 2 in this part of Essex in my 41 years. but 3 years ago, while on a pheasant shoot, we did get an amazing look at an osprey when it stopped over near one of the lakes on the shoots farm.

[powerrabbit]

Next to my land we have three large reservoirs and there is a resident group of Cormorants on them together with the obligatory Mallards, there's even a couple of 'ferral' Muscovy's on one of the reservoirs. Herons are quite plentiful there as well but always seem to dissapear over the nesting season and return again for the winter, perhaps the trees are the wrong sort for them to nest in. There used to be a very large flock of Canada Geese resident as well, I estimate there used to be a flock of at least 500 but these also seem to have diminished in their number, normally now see around 50 at any one time but again as with the Herons, they seem to all but a few pairs to dissapear in spring and return again in around September, but then, geese are rather migrant.

[Light Land]

I don't know about Owls but on the subject of birds, I have noticed a massive rise in the number of Magpies and the subsequent fall in the number of song birds. Sometimes the black and white pests are seen in flocks of 25+ birds, somebody please persuade those well meaning, but ill informed individuals to allow them to be culled.

I did'nt think you got magpies in the UK Mike!,there nasty ugly little sods are'nt they.Loads around here.Hawkes and owls i often see here.

[Leakeyvale]

The Red Kites arrived in this area two or three years ago and there are only a few of them so far. When I moved into the village 20 years ago we had a single breeding pair of buzzards but nowadays I can often see seven or eight birds at a time. Plenty of Kestrels and sparrowhawks, Peregrines are seen occasionally and I have also seen a Merlin on the ground with a Blackbird (which was bigger than the Merlin). Ospreys, however, we do not have at all and I would love to see one. You are so lucky, Chris.

Stoats are pretty aggressive, as you say, and I have been lucky enough to see one "dancing" in front of a rabbit. Rabbit was mesmerised and the stoat so intent on its victim that both animals were unaware that I was passing within a few feet with 2 greyhounds! I have also had a weasel performing gymnastic feats outside my dining room - it is amazing how they can leap and twist and turn figures of eight in the air! They, too, are fierce predators and seem afraid of nothing. My tortoise is always shut in at ***ht as he is vulnerable when torpid and with stoats, weasels,rats and the odd fox around he needs protection.

[Light Land]

do you ever see foxes sue?

[Leakeyvale]

I have seen foxes but not often. Usually early in the morning digging for worms in a field margin.

Some years ago a fox was seen by neighbours sitting on the bonnet of my car on a cold winter night. I had driven home from work (40 miles) and my bonnet was warm! I often saw fox paw marks (and bottom marks) on the bonnet where the frost had not formed so it obviously became a habit. Also one of my dogs would go out in the garden first thing in the morning and have a really good sniff in front of the side gate before making a big thing about spending a penny over a particular spot. I beat her out one morning and there was a very musky smell and a drying puddle so I assume a vixen had been in the habit of using that place