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12 May 2008

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Baggy Moor barn owl baby boom

Author:

Michelle Dolphin

Date published:

14-Nov-2007

Keywords:



Barn owls along rivers and wetlands in the West of the Shropshire have received a timely boost this year with 21 chicks fledging from nest boxes installed by the Environment Agency in the Baggy Moor area of the River Perry. But this year’s bumper crop of chicks led to a barn owl housing shortage.

 

We have been buying nest boxes for this area for the past few years and this summer we installed even more. They have been erected in safe areas in barn-owl-friendly farmer’s fields, well away from roads, where night-time traffic causes many barn owl casualties.

 

Installation was carried out by our own Operations Delivery Team, with advice and assistance from the Shropshire Barn Owl Group. Boxes have also been erected along many tributaries of the River Severn in Wales.

 

The Shropshire Barn Owl Group also monitor the barn owl numbers. The programme has been successful and barn owl numbers in the area have grown steadily since the boxes were erected.

 

River corridors are excellent habitats for barn owls which feed on mice and voles, which in turn require long grass and buffer strips for their habitat.

 

The installation of the nest boxes complements the Environment  Agency’s work in meeting government targets for habitat improvements in the Severn catchment. This further enhances habitat improvement work arising through the take up of agri-environment schemes by landowners.

 

Technical Officer, Simon Cuming, says: “The barn owl programme is part of our wider habitat creation programme. It has been very successful and we hope that this year’s brood will soon be occupying the new nest boxes we have installed this summer, and raising families of their own, which will increase the population of barn owls even further.”

 

 -ends-

 

Further information for media contact Lyn Fraley on 0121 711 5829/5855

Contact for media only. All other enquiries contact 08708 056506

 

 

Further information

For more information on barn owls see:

www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/b/barnowl/index.asp




Doc reference:

07/287fer

Contact:

enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk


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Author: Michelle Dolphin | enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk