Sharon Boardman - Wildlife - 14 February 2009 (From Worcester News)

Sharon Boardman - Wildlife - 14 February 2009

9:58am Monday 16th February 2009 in

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SEVERAL friends have been telling me that they are seeing ‘ghostly’ birds flying around when they commute to and from work.

These birds are of course barn owls – Tyto alba.

The best times to see them are at dawn and dusk and this is bang on travel times – around 8am and 5pm.

Catching a glimpse of an owl as it is hunting over open spaces or drifting silently above a hedge line, is a precious moment.

John Clare, the famous poet, described the bird very well: “The owl on wheaten wing,/And white hood scowling o’er his eyes.”

With a heart-shaped face, rich golden-buff upperparts and wings and pure white underparts, the barn owl is an absolutely stunning and much loved countryside bird.

They are also referred to as ghost owls, as their pale body and wings can glow a ghostly white when spotted flying on a dark evening.

Barn owls do not hoot like other owls, instead they give off a long, piercing screech. They also hiss, snore and yap.

Barn owls are mainly nocturnal (hunt at night, sleep during the day), but may hunt before dusk and around dawn when feeding young and in daylight in winter.

Their good eyesight and hearing, combined with silent flight due to their especially adapted feathers, gives them the ability to take their prey by surprise, without frightening it away.

In Britain and Ireland, rodents make up about 90 per cent of their prey, especially mice, voles and shrews. It is said that owls can hear the rustle of a tiny shrew from 30 feet.

Prey is normally swallowed whole and the indigestible parts (fur, bones, teeth, feathers etc) will be regurgitated in large, smooth, blackish pellets, which accumulate at nesting and roosting sites.

Barn owls often hunt from exposed perches such as fenceposts, but also in low flight.

They have exceptional hearing and can find prey by sound alone.

Barn owls mate for life and if food is plentiful, a pair can rear two clutches of owlets in a summer.

They are traditionally found nesting in barns, but they will also nest in hollow trees, old ruins and church towers. Barn owl boxes put in isolated trees are also an important substitute as their traditional nesting habitats are becoming scarcer.

They are widely distributed across the UK, and indeed the world (there are 30 subspecies of barn owl), but barn owls declined in Britain in the 20th century because of degradation of once prey-rich habitats in the face of intensive agricultural practices.

Luckily, the decline has been halted in some areas.