Barn owl boxes just the job for Bosch
ON the hill above Padfield this morning, I found myself in the clouds and looking down upon a scene that has little changed since the 15th century days of the Dutch painter, Hieronymus Bosch, and I could see kids playing, someone tending their horse and a few sheep breathing steam into the frosty air; there was also a hundred jackdaws launching themselves skyward for the day, and the only thing missing were a few farm hands knocking back the beer behind the haystacks.
Of course ‘ale’ in those days was part of their pay, indeed as far back as 1361 in, ‘The Extent of the Lordshipes of
Longdendale,’ working in the fields for a day would bring you several herring, a handful of oatcakes and a barrel of beer. It was the same in Holland. For those readers not familiar with the nightmarish work of Bosch, think ‘League of Gentlemen,’ meets Damien Hirst.
His paintings were a mixture of the pastoral described above and a fantasy trip down the River Styx where amazingly lifelike wildlife was melded with the contorted faces of demons to depict Hell.
However, what really brought Bosch to mind on my walk, was the sight of a barn owl sitting on a branch below me.
You see, I reckon Bosch was a country lover and a wildlife artist first, and his barn owl at the nest always makes me smile, as does the detail of the peasants and the empty beer barrel.
We’ll never know what really made Bosch tick, although for centuries many have guessed, there’s definitely a PhD in there for me somewhere.
In the meantime, and following on from my recent nest box article, let’s see if we can give this endangered beauty a chance next spring by erecting barn owl nest boxes wherever we can, especially as the circulation area of this column has the least barn owls in the UK.
Your property should be at least 1km, preferably more, from the nearest motorway or dual carriageway, because busy roads account for a great number of barn owl deaths each year.
Most of these fatalities are the current year’s young as they disperse. I witnessed this only last week on the M61, one owl dead on the hard-shoulder, while another was clearly seen being wafted upwards by the turbulence created by a forty-foot articulated lorry.
Thankfully on this occasion the owl made it across to the other side of the motorway, however if this is a regular route, it’s only a matter of time.
If you have a large building that a barn owl can enter at, say, at least three metres above the ground, then this is almost certainly the best place to put the new nest box.
Boxes in buildings are easier to erect, cheaper to obtain (cheaper and quicker to make), they last a lot longer, and the extra shelter afforded by the building will benefit the owls. If there’s a building with no access, a small hole can be made relatively easily. And remember, it’s the ‘hole’ the owl is after, and this needs to be visible from the access point.
Buildings that are in human or agricultural use are usually very suitable, as barn owls can get used to almost any kind of activity. Loading and stacking hay bales, cows birthing, the owls are just not bothered; but the best example of barn owls carrying on regardless I ever witnessed was, when my Irish band, The Curragh Sons, played a wedding in a huge antler-lined barn on Lord Vesty’s estate in Shropshire. Think aircraft-hanger, three hundred guests, a noisy band, and Rollers, Bentleys and choppers dropping off guests, while high in the rafters, an adult bird with kids to feed, flew in mid-song with a mouse swinging from it’s beak. (I was singing not the owl).
If you don’t own a mansion, a farm, or a woodland, you can help in other ways, for example, joining a local barn owl group, and check out http:// www.barnowltrust.org.uk and www.rspb.org.uk
I’m not a Bosch, a Bruegel or indeed a Hirst, but I was fairly chuffed with this barn owl oil painting of mine. It was one of those rare times when the stars aligned and although I’ve surely tried, couldn’t pull off again.