Barn owl boom on grouse moor managed for shooting

A bumper brood of barn owls are nesting on moorland managed for grouse shooting in the Yorkshire Dales.

Six chicks were found in good health on Conistone and Grassington estate this month and were all ringed by a British Trust for Ornithology ringer, with help from headkeeper Harvey Wiggins.

“We were thrilled to find out such an unusually large brood was nesting in a barn on managed moorland in the Yorkshire Dales,” said Sonya Greenwood, administrator for the Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group. Barn owl numbers have been poorly monitored in recent years, though their numbers are thought to have declined during the past century. The most recent UK survey — carried out between 1995 and 1997 — estimated that there were around 4,000 pairs across the country.

Six chicks is considered to be a particularly large brood. Barn owls are capable of producing three broods of five to seven chicks each year, though most breed only once and have an average of just two-and-a-half young, with around a quarter of nests producing no young at all.

The chicks were ringed with the help of the estate headkeeper