Page 17 - Thrapston Life January 2024

NIGHT
HUNTERS
Barn Owl Trust
A ghostly white bird silently flies across a field in the half-light. Hovering low to the ground, head down, it intensely listens for the sounds of prey in the long grass. A momentary pause to hone in on its target before a sudden
dive to the ground as it strikes with extended legs. Success – it emerges from the grass with a vole gripped in its talons.
For anyone that has glimpsed
a Barn Owl hunting at dusk, it is
a magical sight to behold. Sadly,
these moments are far and few
between as these iconic farmland
birds have become increasingly rare.
The decline in Barn Owl numbers is
largely due to a loss of foraging habitat (as a result of intensifying agriculture), the loss of roost and nest sites due to barn conversions/
demolitions, an increase in busy major roads and the widespread use of rodenticides. Now with a changing climate and ecological crisis to add to these hazards, it is a very harsh world out
there for these birds.
Barn Owls are a top predator specialised in hunting small
mammals with around 50% of their diet consisting of field
voles. The ideal foraging habitat for Barn Owls is rough tussocky
grassland that isn’t intensively grazed or mown and so allowing a litter layer of dead grass to form
where field voles will reside – they do not burrow into the ground like other
species of vole. Thus, one of the best measures to help conserve Barn Owls is allowing sections of land, field margins or set-asides to become
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