On the fourth day of Christmas…
December 16, 2015
On the fourth day of Christmas the South Downs brought us… No ordinary calling birds, instead we have the beautiful barn owl.
Barn owls can be found across the South Downs National Park but you’ll need to stay sharp-eyed to catch a glimpse of their ghostly flight. While hawks use their high speed to surprise and capture their prey, owls use a cloak of dusk or dawn and silence as their biggest weapon.
This year the SDNP have installed 36 barn owl boxes across the park taking our total to 220. We’re pleased to say that 50% of the boxes have already attracted new residents and 16% have been used for breeding.
Owls hunt in the gloaming of dusk or dawn for their favourite prey of rodents, taking a particular fancy to field voles, wood mice and shrews, which all use exceptional hearing to detect potential predators. For this reason the birds must be very quiet and they have special feathers to help them.
The edge of the owl’s wing is serrated, which breaks up the air as it passes over the wing. The wing combs the air, with almost no sound produced and the wide, round feathers, cloaked in a velvety covering of tiny little feathers also soften their flight. That’s why when people see owls, they often comment on how silent they are in flight.
The barn owl is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act and their presence is a good indicator if farmed landscape is in good health. While barn owls are not currently a UK priority species, they are used by the South Downs National Park Authority as a flagship species to engage with farmers about conservation and land management.
All photos taken by Bruce Middleton