A wild Barn Owl in our Wildlife Tower in the LLP
‘Barn Owl Heaven!’
Managing our wildlife haven (known as the Lennon Legacy Project or LLP) for Barn Owls, has created diverse habitat for a wonderful array of native plants and flowers, insects, butterflies, birds and mammals.
The LLP consists of 26 acres nestled on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, and includes part of the River Ashburn which runs through the woodland valley where the Barn Owl Trust offices are set. Creating rough grassland, re-creating hedge banks, planting an orchard, building a wildlife tower and stone banks, plus two wildlife ponds has hugely increased the biodiversity of this varied landscape.
Find out how we look after our Barn Owl habitat and follow our monthly highs and lows of wildlife sightings, unpredictable weather and practical conservation work.
More about our Wildlife Diary.
Intensively grazed sheep pasture transformed into Barn Owl Heaven!
December 2018 Our Dormouse license-holding volunteer Tony checked the boxes on the 4th, making sure they were in good condition and clearing them out ready for next spring. Another nest discovered, making a total of 7 for the year, whilst a Woodcock was accidentally flushed from Corner Wood. Monitoring of the winter bird crop on […]
December 2017 By mid-month the Belted Galloways had done their job of removing much of the year’s new growth without damaging the all-important litter layer, so the grazier came and removed them on the 16th. The first record of Reed Bunting for the LLP involved a pair watched perching on tall grasses to the east […]
December 2016 A Green Woodpecker was heard yaffling on the 2nd. Our grazier brought in 5 Belted Galloway cows with their month-old calves on the 6th for a spot of late winter grazing. The breed is quieter, more docile and lighter than normal and we expect to have them for no more than a couple […]
This Wildlife Diary began in 2007 and is a monthly report from the Trust’s land which is managed for Barn Owls and other wildlife. It is known as the Lennon Legacy Project or LLP: ‘Transforming intensively grazed sheep pasture into Barn Owl Heaven’.
December 2014 A damp start to the month, the temperature dropping below freezing on some nights and predominately northerly winds. Despite this the grass is continuing to grow slowly, good news for the voles living in the litter layer and everything that eats them! By the wreath making workshop on the 11th all of the […]
![Painted Lady Butterfly [David Ramsden] 210906 (A)](https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Painted-Lady-butterfly-100x100.jpg "Wildlife Diary 2013")
December 2013 A group of ten Plymouth University student volunteers visited on 4th, and tackled scrub along Corner Wood and North Park hedgerows. As always, good progress was made. Some white splashes and a small Barn Owl pellet were found around the wildlife tower on the 6th. Field Voles holes have started appearing in the […]
December 2012 On the 12th, 6 Plymouth University students spent the morning searching for Brown Hairstreak eggs on the new Blackthorn growth along our roadside perimeter. This is apparently by far the best way of surveying for this rather retiring species, as adults either spend most of their time at rest, or high up in […]
![LLP Vole Hole [David Ramsden] 230308 (A)](https://www.barnowltrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/LLP-vole-hole-100x100.jpg "Wildlife Diary 2011")
December 2011 On the 12th the regular Plymouth University group finally finished cutting back bramble from North Park. A couple of days later a Conservation Team Work Party spent some much-needed time in the orchard. The plastic tree guards that had become brittle in the two years they’ve been in service were taken off and […]
December 2010 A further 30+ Fieldfares were noted in the remnant hedge feeding on Holly berries on the 4th. By the middle of the month all the berries, holly, rosehips, sloes and haws had been eaten. The two ponds have both been covered in ice all month with just a small patch of clear water […]
December 2009 On the 5th, our annual Winter Work Party was attended by 12 volunteers, including a group from the Nature at Sundown project and from BTCV Plymouth. We spent the day cutting back the overhanging branches of the remnant hedge in Kiln Close and the predominantly Hazel road boundary hedge. Great progress was made […]
