Born to be Wild in Bude - News

They are one of our favorite owls and usually seen at dusk or after dark. They are often seen as a large white bird when caught in car headlights flying across roads. It’s not until they are perched that you can see the wonderful golden upper body, speckled with silvery grey flecks and the gorgeous heart shaped face.

Barn owls do not hoot like tawny owls but hiss and screech which can be quite scary if you are unaware of where it is coming from. Late winter early spring is the beginning of the breeding season. Pairs will spend a lot of time together with the male doing most of the hunting, feeding up his mate to get her into tip-top condition to have his young. In spring, after successful mating, the female will lay five to six eggs at two to three day intervals. This means the young can be over two weeks apart in development meaning the younger chicks will struggle to survive. Normally the female will do all the incubation which can last up to thirty two days. She will stay with them until they are about three weeks old, at which stage they can be getting quite playful with each other. Both parents will now be able to feed them and the female will also have the opportunity to feed herself as she will be quite thin by this stage.

By ten weeks old the barn owl chicks are fully grown and will turn into prolific hunters, flying low over farmland and roadside verges looking for their next meal.

An adult barn owl will eat two to three rats, mice or other small mammals each night. They need to eat the complete animal including bone, fur and even feathers which will later be regurgitated as a pellet.

If you are plagued with rodents it might be an idea to encourage a pair by putting up a nest box. This is the most natural way to control rodents, instead of using cruel traps or poisons which could be harmful to other animals and even pets. A family of barn owls could easily eat three hundred rats per month which equates to over three thousand a year!

The photos are of Merlin a Barn Owl that was hit by a car. One shows him with his wing in a splint and the other was the day I released him. He was found near Rocky Valley and was bought our to vet by a member of the public and his wing was put in a splint after an x-ray showed it was fractured. He spent many weeks with me recovering and was eventually released near where he was found.

This was a very emotional experience as I had grown extremely fond of him, but seeing him fly off down the valley made it all worth while. Giving him a second chance is what it’s all about.