Group and Local News - 2007

Wokingham's Barn Owls bounce back!

Wokingham’s barn owls have recovered from last years very poor breeding season with 30 chicks produced this year. Barn owls are thought to have declined nationally by 70% since the 1930s, and in Wokingham there were originally thought to be only a handful of breeding pairs.

Wokingham Borough Council in partnership with Hurst Parish Council, the Environment Agency, the Barn Owl Conservation Network (BOCN) and local landowners erected 13 new barn owl nest boxes in November 2002 and a further 6 boxes in late 2005. Monitoring of the boxes over the last five years has revealed barn owl breeding is highly dependent on the availability of small mammals. There have been good years in 2003, 2005 and 2007, interspersed with poor years in 2004 and 2006. This year the evidence of a bumper small mammal year was all too evident, as half the broods contained numerous uneaten mice and voles stock piled in the boxes.

The project has been a great success in it’s first five years with 58 barn owl chicks, 1 little owl chick and 13 kestrel chicks produced. The strongholds are as expected in Swallowfield, Finchampstead and Hurst but there is evidence that boxes in less rural locations have been used by non breeding birds. Barn owl pairs bond for life and are remarkably faithful to their nest sites; the same pairs are likely to return to their boxes for years to come.

Barn owl nest sites are hard to come by in an area where many barns are converted for human occupation. It’s extremely gratifying to know that practical action by the project partners has helped to substantially increase the local population.

All birds, their nests and eggs are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended). Barn owls are listed on Schedule 1 which gives them special protection.





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