Robert Fuller: Barn Owls in the Wolds

They may have been through some tough times lately, but things are starting to look up for barn owls in the Yorkshire Wolds. “Several birds produced double broods in 2014,” says local wildlife artist Robert Fuller, “with some birds having clutches of up to six eggs and as many as eleven chicks. Not all the information is in yet, but it’s the best year I’ve known at least.”

It’s a very different story from winter 2013, the worst breeding season since records began for the ghostly white hunting bird, so characteristic of the Wolds. “There were no breeding barn owls around the gallery at all, “ says Robert. The year after was therefore all important, and in his entertaining column for the Yorkshire Post, he described how he monitored a pair of breeding owls via close circuit television in their nest box, and witnessed the first signs of new hope: “The first egg was laid on April 1st and six eggs followed at three day intervals, with the last laid on Good Friday. For me these were the most precious eggs this Easter.”

Robert has been fascinated with barn owls since childhood. As well as capturing them in many of his beautiful paintings, he is involved in their conservation, and in 2006 set up the Wolds Barn Owl Group along with consultant ecologist Nick Askew. “I’ve been putting up nesting boxes for years, but started taking it more seriously when we set up the group.” So far, the Trust which has a special licence to work with this Schedule 1 bird, has put up over 150 nesting boxes for barn owls in North and East Yorkshire. They also offer practical advice and support to farmers and landowners, who have an important part to play; decline in habitat is the main reason owls are not as numerous as they used to be.

“Everything’s changed,” explains Robert. “We’ve lost 97% of traditional hay meadows, which are being replaced by haylage and silage and we’ve lost most of the hedgerows. There’s the loss of traditional buildings too, the brick barns where the owls often nested.”

Good news is that farmers can now participate in government stewardship schemes, which promote the management of farmland in a wildlife friendly way. Rough grassland margins, for example, can be left around fields. In the Wolds, owls are also offered a kind of natural protection. “Some of these grass valleys are so steep that you can’t get machinery on them,” says Robert, pointing out one such valley through his studio window.

With barn owls doing well in the Wolds this winter, we could be likely to spot some while we’re out and about. “In February, March and April, they start hunting as part of pair bonding over rough grassland, while it’s still daylight. The best tip is to go out to look for them just after bad weather, such as heavy rain and wind. They wait, and they go out afterwards. That’s the time I go to look for them.” You might also see barn owls on the nest box CCTV upstairs in Robert’s gallery, as well as other nesting birds.

To find out more, Robert recommends visiting the Barn Owl Trust website: www.barnowltrust.org.uk