Barn owl decline caused by cold and wet weather (1 Viewer)

[locustella]

http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/3470...Eowls0Ethreatened0Efreak0Eweather/story01.htm

Battle to save barn owl after freak weather kills thousands
Environment news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk|Jamie Doward
now fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs of barn owls in England (...) Britain should be home to as many as 4,000 pairs

What is HS2 ?
Is the weather really responsible for that ? The bodies of 91% of the birds contained rat poison.

 

[Capercaillie71]

What is HS2 ?.

HS2 is a proposed high speed railway to be built between London and Birmingham.

 

[Farnboro John]

http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/3470...Eowls0Ethreatened0Efreak0Eweather/story01.htm
What is HS2 ?
Is the weather really responsible for that ? The bodies of 91% of the birds contained rat poison.

Depending what rat poison it is, I recall rats learned the behaviour of going and lying up against central heating pipes until the poison wore off. That would fit with lowering Barn Owls' resistance to cold/wet weather: after all, Barn Owls have been dealing with weather for thousands of years.

John

 

[Himalaya]

I thought Barn Owls had done better over the last 2 years and in East Lancashire there did appear to be a bit of a spread? I have not seen any since March but then again I have never seen that many in the UK anyway, probably less than 10?

 

[Mike in Cumbria]

Barn owls are originally a southern European species that spread north following neolithic humans as they converted woodland to farmland. They are much more dependent on small mammals than are tawny owls, which are quite happy switching from mammals to birds when the snow covers the ground. Barn owls start dying off in our northern areas when we have snow on the ground for more than a week or so at a time. They then recolonise from the south. They are living on the edge of their suitable habitat up here and susceptible to population crashes.

Mike

 

[Boro Birder]

Well i no here on Teeside the fortunes of this bird are on the up with 24 youngsters been ringed last year and i think there is as many as 9 breeding pairs. I do not know the outcome of this years breeding season but still plenty of sightings in the area.

 

[Mike in Cumbria]

The population in Kielder forest grew and grew (helped by bird box schemes) but after the hard winter of 2011, not one breeding pair was left. They just start starving to death when they can't get at the voles. They'll recover, it's just that they're not living in the habitat that they evolved for and so have to take these knockbacks every so often.

Mike

 

[Mike in Cumbria]

And very few of those birds would be coming into contact with rat poison.

 

[Farnboro John]

And very few of those birds would be coming into contact with rat poison.

Mmm - not so sure about that. Particularly when cold weather causes difficulty, hunting owls move around a lot, and with things like indoor lambing sheds, hay barns, food stores etc I would guess a lot of rodents taken are around farm buildings where poison is likely to be put down.

Also Pennine and Teeside farms are mostly fairly small - there are a lot of homesteads per unit area - so I would anticipate a lot of risk.

John

 

[Jon Turner]

Those freezing months in 2010 (January and December) saw off most of the Barn Owls on Braunton Marsh and Great Field. One pair survived and when I looked in the very small nesting barn in the spring after both winters I found several pairs of bird wings on the straw bales - I consulted with the Barn Owl Trust who were surprised that Barn Owls should be taking birds - the first spring I found several of each of Starling and Dunlin - must have found a roost and just helped themselves - got them through the cold spell. The second year there were mostly Starling wings, but also a Water Rail! They are still there (only one juv ringed this year). Looking forward to next year to see how they fare.

 

[Boro Birder]

I've just read on the RSPB Newsroom link, Nocturnal Nature that according to the new BTO Atlas that the Barn Owl has had a 67% increase in it's range since the 1980, so this news is rather contradicts the other.....puzzled to say the least.

 

[Farnboro John]

I've just read on the RSPB Newsroom link, Nocturnal Nature that according to the new BTO Atlas that the Barn Owl has had a 67% increase in it's range since the 1980, so this news is rather contradicts the other.....puzzled to say the least.

Range and density of population don't have to match up, and over time both can change markedly. For boom and bust species it can really depend on when you take the snapshot view.

John

 

[Boro Birder]

Thanks for that john i just assumed if there was a rise in the birds range it would mean a rise in population.

Damian

 

[Capercaillie71]

I've just read on the RSPB Newsroom link, Nocturnal Nature that according to the new BTO Atlas that the Barn Owl has had a 67% increase in it's range since the 1980, so this news is rather contradicts the other.....puzzled to say the least.

Remember that half of the BTO atlas fieldwork took place before the severe winter of 2009/10. Many of the birds in northern Scotland would have been wiped out during that winter. In a similar way the map for Stonechat in the new atlas was out of date before the book was published as that species was wiped out in inland parts of northern Scotland during the same winter.

 

[locustella]

Here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/540/337/093/save-the-barn-owl/?z00m=20701395
is a petition to sign, asking the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to introduce proper regulation on rodent poisons - before it's too late to save barn owls (this is what is written in the petition).