August News Bytes 2022

These newsbytes have appeared on our social media sites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram during the month and have been pulled together here.

Vote for us!

What would you do if you won £1,000? Or £2,500? Or even £45,000? For us, it would have a huge impact on our ability to care for wild injured Barn Owls as well as help us continue with our conservation projects. MyGivingCircle will distribute £45,000 between 30 charities after 30th September. The catch? The more votes, the more chance we have of receiving a donation – this is where you come in! Please show us your support by clicking the link above and voting for the Barn Owl Trust. You are even able to vote multiple times (up to once a week. We only have 60 days left, so once you’ve voted us, please do share this post! We appreciate every single vote we receive; Thank you!

Barn Owl ID

Following on from our post in the July News Bytes, about the beautiful female Barn Owl, this is Baley!

Baley is a typical male Barn Owl, with a very white chest, no speckling and a very pale facial disk. Baley goes out with our Conservation Officers to school talks and has inspired many children this year.

You can find out all about the school talks we offer: here.

Great Big Green Week

The Great Big Green Week is back!
People from all walks of life are coming together again for the biggest celebration of climate and nature the UK has ever seen. In celebration, the Barn Owl Trust are offering THREE of our talks* for FREE between 24th September to 2nd October 2022:
• Restoring The Balance
• Children’s Barn Owl Talk
• Climate and Ecological Crisis – What’s All The Fuss About?
If you are interested in booking any one of these talks for your local group (whether that be for your neighbours, the local community at the town hall or your child’s class) please contact us on info@barnowltrust.org.uk

Chainsaw Carving!

Our annual Christmas Prize Draw takes place this year on Wednesday 7th December and raises much needed funds to support the vital conservation work at the Barn Owl Trust. The prizes this year are better than ever and include this magnificently detailed carved owl by Scott’s Chainsaw Carving which would be an incredible piece for any home or garden. Tickets are on sale now and cost £1 each or £5 for a book. You can either buy them directly by telephoning the Trust on 01364 255256, or by going onto the website where there is information on how to buy tickets and also a full list of prizes.

Will you make a lasting difference today?

Our wonderful Wildlife Tower was built using a generous legacy that will go on making a difference for many years to come.
Could you support Barn Owls in your will? Find out more here.

Photo by Kevin Keatley.

We need your help!

Do you have a minute to spare? Benefact Group are awarding 250 charities £1,000 each but for us to receive this we need your nomination. The more nominations we receive, the greater chance we have of receiving a £1,000 grant. We are a small, grassroots charity so £1,000 would help us immensely; it could help rehabilitate and release an injured wild owl, cover the cost of a couple of conservation habitat advice visits or feed our sanctuary owls for a month.
So please do nominate us and share this post to help spread the word.
Thank you! 💚

A lovely post from The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales

The best way to encourage Barn Owls into your area is to manage land to improve Field Vole (and other small mammal) populations. If this is something you are interested in doing, you can find out all about How to manage land for Barn Owls on our website. Our team are available by phone/email Monday to Friday 10am-4pm if you have any questions.
If you are thinking about putting up a Barn Owl nestbox, have a look at our Where’s the best place for your Barn Owl nestbox page. From here, you can find all the cutting plans for the nestboxes that we make!

Bat Walk! 

Last week, local Bat Expert and Ecologist Louise Woolley, lead a public Bat Walk event at our reserve in South Devon! It was a beautiful night and the evening began with an educational presentation from Louise, followed by a emergence style survey at our Wildlife Tower and finished off with a survey over the ponds!
The following bat species were recorded:
🦇 Common Pipistrelle
🦇 Daubenton’s (over the ponds)
🦇 Noctule
🦇 Barbastelle (we have a specific Barbastelle bat box in our woodland area)
🦇 Long-eared
🦇 Lesser horseshoe (droppings were found inside the Wildlife Tower)
Thank you so much Louise!

Juvenile Barn Owl dispersal

By 14 weeks of age, most juvenile Barn Owls have started to disperse. Although it depends on when the eggs are laid, this is typically between August and November. Over 50% of juveniles settle on a home range that is within 10 km of their original nest site, although females tend to disperse further than males. Unfortunately, more Barn Owls die during dispersal that at any other time and major roads are a significant hazard. Please keep an eye for Barn Owls when you’re driving at night.
Find out more about this stage of a Barn Owl’s life here.
Photo credit: Russell Savory

Drought

We don’t know about you, but we are hugely relieved to be having some rain! The impact of the recent weather can still be seen all around us at the moment, with areas that are usually luscious and green being brown and dry. As you can see, our rough grassland reserve is no exception.
Field Voles (the main prey species for UK Barn Owls), rely on a healthy rough grassland habitat and fresh grass growth to survive. A reduction in this means a reduction in Field Voles, which means a reduction in food availability for Barn Owls…
Find out more about how the climate and ecological crisis affects Barn Owls.

Thank you!!

Since our last post about MyGivingCircle, we have moved from position 1,300 to number 374 and that’s all because of your votes – we truly appreciate the support you’ve shown us! In case you missed our post last month, MyGivingCircle.org will distribute £45,000 between the top 30 voted-for charities after 30th September. Please show us your support by clicking here and voting for the Barn Owl Trust because the more votes, the more chance we have of receiving a donation. We appreciate every single vote we receive; Thank you!
Photo credit: Gavin Bickerton-Jones

Juvenile dispersal

Juvenile dispersal is a particularly hard time for Barn Owls. More Barn Owls die during this dispersal phase than at any other time, which has a greater effect on Barn Owl numbers than any other stage of the life-cycle. Therefore, understanding dispersal and why so many young Barn Owls die is incredibly important.
Recently, a scientific article was published that two members of our conservation team co-authored. Dr Mateo Ruiz and David Ramsden MBE collaborated with people from Ambios Ltd and Lotek to produce the paper “Juvenile Barn Owl Tyto alba alba dispersal: a radio-tracking study of roost site selection in relation to landscape features (Ruiz, Ramsden, Roper, Cresswell & Skuse, 2021, Bird Study 68:2). You can find out more, including links to the paper, here.
Photo credit: Phil Thorogood