Barn Owl Box Monitoring at Moldrams Ground LNR

[Rachael Whaites]

From Rachael Whaites, SSDC Countryside Ranger for Moldrams Ground LNR:

I attended a Barn Owl box monitoring workshop with Chris Sperring from Somerset Wildlife Trust (SWT) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) on Saturday 13th April.  I would like to share some of the information I gained from attending this workshop and also tell you how you get can get involved with monitoring your community Barn Owl box.

Barn Owls are one of nearly 90 species of bird that are listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981.  This means that it is an offence to intentionally disturb these birds whilst they are building a nest, in, on or near a nest containing eggs or young or to disturb dependent young even if they are not on the nest.

As we (the rangers) work some distance away from Moldrams LNR we would like you (the community) to help us monitor the Barn Owl box that we had erected at Moldrams.  In order to do this safely and without breaking the laws set out above I would suggest that you do the following:

Take the public footpath in the north-east corner of Moldrams (up the steps) into the adjoining field.  Sit or stand against the hedgerow with a view across to the nest box.  From here, using binoculars and/or a scope, you will be able to monitor the box without disturbing any owls.  Record what you see and let us know via email to [e-mail] or take part in the BTO's Nest Box Challenge on www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/nbc Recording number of visits to the box and time between each visit can help SWT determine whether young are on the nest or not. If you think that there may be young in the box please contact us immediately on 01935 462462 so that SWT can be informed and Chris Sperring can arrange to come out and ring the chicks. 

Of course, this is wildlife and there are no guarantees that the box will be used or it may be used by another species-even squirrels!  Whatever you see please let us know as it is all important information.

Please do not approach the nest box-whatever you see using it!

 

Thank you for your help :-)

[Robert Backus]

We'll see what we can do Rachael.