These newsbytes have appeared on our social media sites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram during the month and have been pulled together here.
Duke is released!
A successful soft release! This trail cam footage (see full video here) shows Barn Owl ‘Duke’ visiting the mobile release aviary to collect some food. Over the coming weeks we will gradually reduce the amount of food provided while he learns to hunt for himself. After arriving in a sorry state as a young bird, Duke was rehabilitated and then released on site. Find out more about release methods here.
We are looking for volunteers!
Do you enjoy practical outdoor conservation work? We are looking for volunteers to support our Conservation Team with the management of our reserve here in South Devon. We are running volunteer days on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next few months:
November 15th and 17th,
December 13th and 15th,
January 10th and 12th,
February 7th and 9th, and
March 7th and 9th.
If you are interested in joining us, please email kaye@barnowltrust.org.uk.
Nestboxing 
Here are some photos from one of the nestboxing days in the first week of October. The treebox was erected because the owner has been observing a Barn Owl hunting over her land. In future, she is planning on building a nesting space within a building which will guarantee nesting provision for Barn Owls well into the future.
The indoor Barn Owl box is receiving some maintenance from Mateo to make clearing it out easier for the owners.
Buy this beautiful Barn Owl print and 10% will be donated to us!
What a stunning Barn Owl drawing! Thanks so much Sophie Nash Art for your generous offer! Check out Sophie’s Etsy shop here!
Advanced Barn Owl Surveying and Mitigation (ABOSM) Course
Last week, we started filming for the online Advanced Barn Owl Surveying and Mitigation (ABOSM) course! Elliot and Alex, from Phoenix Blues Video Production were friendly, helpful, professional and accommodating to our strange requests of filming pellets and faeces at a wild Barn Owl site!
2023 Calendar – January! 
This stunning photo by Craig Jones features as the January image in our beautiful 2023 calendar! Now available in our shop for just £8 + P&P 🤩
Stay tuned for next month’s image… 🧐
Hoppit Barn Owls 2022
This beautiful video shows the wonderful story of a Barn Owl family in Essex from the day the nestbox is installed until the owlets fledge! 🥰
Prize Draw
Help Barn Owls and win a fabulous prize!
Every Prize Draw ticket gives you a chance to win one of 25 amazing prizes and supports our vital conservation work.
Nestboxing
This is a Barn Owl treebox that our Conservation Team erected recently, and the beautiful view from the box! The landowner is keen to attract and support Barn Owls in the area, and has been carrying out some habitat management work too. Find out how to manage land for Barn Owls.
This is an active Barn Owl nest site. The owls have been using the old flat box on the right, which is not safe for owlets. Our Conservation Officers put up the new nestbox on the left last week. As soon as the Barn Owls start reliably using the new nestbox, the old one will be removed.
If you have a barn or outbuilding that you would like to put a Barn Owl nestbox into, have a look on our website here for all the information you’ll need, including the box cutting plan and building instructions.
Putting up a Barn Owl treebox safely is quite a job! You can see Mateo here fixing the nestbox to the tree, and all the safety equipment that is involved. Our team undertake specialist working at height and first aid training. If you have a tree that might be suitable for a Barn Owl, have a look on our website here.
BOTtles!!
BOT bottles are so brilliant – any time, any place, anywhere! Where have you taken yours? Send us your pics of your BOTtle in strange places and tell us where you both went! We’ll share the bestest!
Available for purchase on our website here.
Roe Deer on the reserve
Our trail camera picked up some lovely footage of a beautiful female Roe Deer crossing the River Ashburn into our reserve during the night
Farmwise 2022
Jess attended the Devon Farmwise event this year with our wonderful volunteer Di! Jess and Di had a fantastic day teaching school groups about Barn Owls and doing pellet analysis with the children!
You can find out all about the talks we give at schools on our website here.
Barn Owl pair
Our Conservation Officers came across these Barn Owls at a site in Southwest Devon! The pair remained inside the nestbox during the visit and were not flushed from the site. This photo clearly shows the difference in tail colour between the female (left) and the male (right) Barn Owl. It’s very hard to tell male and female Barn Owls apart unless you get to see them quite close and still! You can learn more about sexing Barn Owls here.
Thank you Brownscombe Luxury Glamping! 
Thank you so much for all your support – it really makes a huge difference!
Common Lizard and Common Frogs on the LLP
Our Assistant Conservation Officer, Pip, spotted this beautiful Common Lizard on our reserve last week! She caught a quick glimpse before the lizard scuttled into a hole in the rough grassland. Managing land for Barn Owls brings a lot of benefits for many other species too.
More about the Common Lizard from the The Wildlife Trusts.
We have two beautiful wildlife ponds on our reserve which are fantastic habitat for a range of species, including this very friendly frog! Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) are most often green-brown, but can be yellow, orange, red, pink and black!!
You can read more about our wildlife sightings on the reserve in our Wildlife Diary.
More about the Common Frog on the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation page.
Comments are closed.