Owl say this was the best present of all!
CHRISTMAS came early for a group of conservationists in Co. Down thanks to an extremely late winter brood of barn owls.
The discovery of four chicks in November – one of the latest recorded in the North to date – surprised and shocked conservationists from Ulster Wildlife, who inspected the nest site at Ballycruttle Farm under licence from Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
The chicks, which fledged in December, are one of the latest broods the local nature conservation charity has encountered in its work to protect these threatened farmland birds over the last ten years.
In the North, barn owl eggs are typically laid in April, with chicks normally fledging in June or July, or occasionally later depending on the weather, but this brood has bucked the trend.
‘Our main concern was their survival’
Katy Bell, senior conservation officer from Ulster Wildlife, said it is the second consecutive year barn owls have bred at Ballycruttle Farm. ‘When Dawn, the landowner at Ballycruttle Farm, sent me an audio recording of chicks snoring and rasping in late October, I couldn’t believe it, as it was so late in the season,’ she said.
‘A visit confirmed the exciting news, but our main concern was whether the chicks would survive given the extremely wet weather and floods. Barn owls struggle to hunt in wet conditions, but the odds were in their favour, as small mammals were fleeing to safety providing easy prey.
‘On our return a few weeks later, we were ecstatic to ring four healthy chicks alongside BTO [the British Trust for Ornithology] and RSPB [Royal Society for the Protection of Birds] NI.’ This is the second consecutive year barn owls have bred at Ballycruttle Farm – a real testament to their wildlife-rich habitats and practices.’
However, the Ballycruttle barn owl pair had their fair share of drama before raising their latest brood. In March, jackdaws took up residence in their nest box, which resulted in the female moving away to a nearby farm, managed by the Kelly family.
A single male had been hunting on the Kelly’s nature-friendly farm for many years and, to their delight, the pair bred and fledged one chick in late summer.
But the Ballycruttle male barn owl persisted; he kept calling and calling to woo the female back. Eventually, she conceded and left her one chick in the hands of the male, who continued to keep feeding it, and laid another clutch of eggs in her original box at Ballycruttle Farm. ‘It was like a soap opera with all the twists and nail-biting moments,’ said Dawn Stocking, of Ballycruttle Farm.
‘I was, of course, disappointed when the female jumped ship to my neighbour’s fantastic farm... So, you can imagine my utter excitement when I heard babies snoring from the nest box – it was like Christmas had come early!
Ballycruttle Farm and Kelly’s Farm are part of the County Down Farmland Bird Initiative.