3 minute read
Wildlife Chris Sperring MBE
Kestrels and little owls offer a glimmer of hope
MY annual barn owl monitoring around the county continues with visits to many farmers and landowners, checking sites for owlets and generally catching up conversation-wise with some very interesting folk.
Interesting too, that 20 years ago, for example, it would have been a regular occurrence to not just be looking at barn owls but kestrels also. The kestrel should be a familiar bird to us, indeed those of us of an age will remember fondly counting kestrels hovering over roadside verges as our parents drove us around.
It used to be a quite serious game to try to spot more kestrels than your friends; sadly the kestrel has declined rapidly over the last 20 years, with a whole generation of people growing up not having observed this species with the ease with which we did.
It was around the late 1980s that farmers who were environmentallyaware began ringing the alarm bells about another species disappearing from the countryside. The little owl is thought to have been introduced by Victorian gardeners to stop bullfinches eating the blossom off their prized trees.
I often wonder how true that is, as this owl doesn’t target bullfinch so would never make an effective pest controller. The little owl is our smallest and only non-native owl.
It is interesting that both kestrel and little owl can have quite similar diets, taking quite a lot of insect material and they will both catch voles, shrews and mice and, occasionally, small birds too.
In the case of the owl, it’s always been closely linked to orchards, but that’s probably more to do with the variety of insect prey it can catch, with
the addition perhaps of some desirable old trees with rotten holes for nesting. Both species, though, are adapted to be in more open habitats as opposed to woodland; old traditional English parklands are very much to their liking, By CHRIS SPERRING MBE as are our smaller patchworks of fields surrounded by mature hedgerows, but again that is more about the variety and potential abundance of food. I’m constantly reminding myself of my own advice, and that is: “Nature isn’t all about doom and gloom, it’s too easy to talk about this species and that declining, will we talk about the positives so loudly?” So, here we go folks, grip on to something tight. Whilst carrying out my annual barn owl monitoring, I’m now once again recording little owls and, on some farms, this is after an absence of some 20 years. Also, the number of kestrels I have found nesting on these farms has been rising over the last five years and this year I’ve been recording an increase in nests and some large broods containing five young falcons. I could mention other species I’ve noticed which are easier to observe due to their increased number, for example yellowhammer, but space is too tight. This is such good news and we must keep this going. Nature recovery, for real. Once again thank you to the farmers and landowners for all your help. The Hawk and Owl Trust Somerset Barn Owls webcam is still live. Visit https://hawkandowltrust.org/web-camlive/barn-owl-cam-live-somerset *The next free Hawk and Owl Trust wildlife walk on the Shapwick Moor nature reserve will be on August 12th. Visit www.hawkandowltrust.org.uk for details. In addition, and due to popular demand, I’m planning some wildlife walks on and around Mendip, these will start in September. Please contact me for details.
