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little owls (1 Viewer)

Surreybirder

Surreybirder

Ken Noble
I live in Surrey. Talking with local birders, we have all noticed a dramatic decline in the number of little owls in our area. I think that the decline set in at about the time of the very hard winters (2012 and 13, I think they were). According to Birdtrack, reporting rates are now down to about 1/3 of their historic average levels. My mates and I reckon that the decline around SE Surrey is more like 90%.
I would be interested to know whether people in other parts of the UK have noticed marked declines in little owl numbers. And also if anyone has any theories as to what is happening.
There do seem to be rather more barn owls about in the last few years but do they predate little owls to a significant extent?
Another theory is that increasing buzzard nos. have impacted the no. of little owls. Or perhaps they have made the little owls more cautious about perching openly.
Thoughts?
 
Just quickly and briefly...certainly a big drop off in numbers in Devon in last ten years from what I've heard. Don't know if they were ever that numerous in Cornwall but I don't hear of many sightings at all down here. However, in my short visits to County Durham in the last ten years I know they can still be seen in most of the places I knew them from as a kid growing up there thirty years ago.
 
Still seem to be around in normal numbers in Richmond Park in London part of Surrey.

I would have though Barn Owl taking one would be very unusual if it happens at all.
 
Significant and continued decline both in the Somerset atlas and since as part of an ongoing survey.

On my patch, outside the Somerset recording area and in the former county of Avon, I used to have five or six locations to see Little Owls but I now have none - though they are present in lower numbers and I continue to bump into a few annually.

All the best
 
I asked my experienced ringing trainer about this a while ago, and if I remember correctly, he said from his own experience of Little Owl, he related it to the decline in Starlings, he would find lots of Starling corpses (I think he said specifically juveniles, but I can’t be sure) around nests, and when the Starling dropped significantly the Owls did too.
 
Slight decline in Northumbs, but still reasonable numbers. They've always been fairly scarce up here though, at the northern limit of their range (think there's maybe just a very few just over the border in SE Scotland).
 
I was going to suggest another possible reason for declines in some areas (and the continuing good numbers in Richmond Park with its mature trees might support this), in the Geneva canton of Switzerland the species was also in severe decline and the lack of old trees with nice Little Owl-sized holes was considered as a potential cause. Since the installation of nestboxes around the canton in the last few years there has been a spectacular recovery, so much so that I understand the Geneva area now has the highest density of the species in Switzerland.
 
Not sure on numbers but interesting that one of local little owls was taken over by a barn owl and made larger, though the little owl just moved into a near by tree
 
thanks for all the replies.
It's not really possible to draw conclusions from a small number of cases but it does sound as if loss of nesting sites could be a factor.
I'm interested to hear about the nest box scheme in Switzerland. I'm aware of people putting up boxes for tawny and barn owls in this area but I don't remember hearing of any for little owls. There are lots of trees in Surrey, of course, but little owls don't seem to like woodland as such. It's possible that there are fewer suitable trees.
 
Nutcracker said:
Wonder if increasing competition for the few remaining holes from Ring-necked Parakeets might be a factor too?
Click to expand...

RNPs are still scarce near me.

One theory I've heard is that the crash in the rabbit population has forced buzzards to hunt different prey.

Another is that the loss of beetles has deprived LOs of food.

Of course, there could be several factors at work simulataneously.
 
Nutcracker said:
Wonder if increasing competition for the few remaining holes from Ring-necked Parakeets might be a factor too?
Click to expand...

There must be some competition but in Richmond Park where Little Owls are doing well there are probably a couple of hundred parakeets, large numbers of Jackdaws + a fair number of Stock Doves too not to mention Egyptian Geese + Mandarins also all looking for suitable cavities.

Also in central London in Kensington Gardens, Little Owls continue to hold there own despite parakeets, increasing number of Jackdaws + Stock Doves.
 
I used to see Little Owls in several areas of my local patches around Southampton, but haven't seen one for several years now. It seems strange that Great White Egrets are now far more common on the patch than Little Owls...not that I'm suggesting any correlation!
 
I used to know of a site with eight pairs of Little Owl, this declined to one in the short space of about three years, there were no changes to the habitat or nest site availability, but it did coincide with a run of hot dry periods in mid to late summer. I wondered at the time, and still do, whether this resulted in a decline in available prey like earthworms (which would have retreated deeper into the soil), plus, as others above have mentioned, a decline in invertebrates (and the knock-on of a decline in passerine prey). As to the current situation, the one pair on the site that were usually in evidence I haven't seen since a single fledgling in July last year and I'm now beginning to wonder if they have gone from the site.
I also used to see a couple of pairs in other locations and certainly at one site they disappeared about ten years ago, while at the other site I haven't seen any for two years, despite suitable habitat and nest box availability.
 
WalterRayle said:
I used to know of a site with eight pairs of Little Owl, this declined to one in the short space of about three years, there were no changes to the habitat or nest site availability, but it did coincide with a run of hot dry periods in mid to late summer. I wondered at the time, and still do, whether this resulted in a decline in available prey like earthworms (which would have retreated deeper into the soil), plus, as others above have mentioned, a decline in invertebrates (and the knock-on of a decline in passerine prey). As to the current situation, the one pair on the site that were usually in evidence I haven't seen since a single fledgling in July last year and I'm now beginning to wonder if they have gone from the site.
I also used to see a couple of pairs in other locations and certainly at one site they disappeared about ten years ago, while at the other site I haven't seen any for two years, despite suitable habitat and nest box availability.
Click to expand...

What part of the country was this?
 
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