Several people have reported Barn Owl sightings on the meadows recently, and BWMG trustee Christopher Cross was able to get these images as the light was fading one evening. The owl was hunting for small mammals – typically field vole, common shrew, field mice – and we can see from the picture that the captured prey was taken back to one of the nest boxes we installed on the meadows, which almost certainly means there are hungry owlets within.
According to the Barn Owl Trust, a Barn Owl will typically eat 3-4 prey items a night. During the breeding season, a pair of Barn Owls will (ideally) find this amount for each owlet as well. Barn Owls eat entire prey items but cannot digest fur or bone, so this is regurgitated in the form of a pellet, which you may find on the ground beneath a roost.
Barn Owls have excellent adaptations for successful hunting and learn to do so almost entirely by their own instincts when they are 8-14 weeks old. These adaptations include very soft feathers that enable silent flight so as not to alert their prey. The flight feathers are covered in a thin hair-like structure that traps air within the feather surface. This helps to maintain a smooth air-flow across the wings and thereby avoid stalling at very low airspeeds. The foremost wing feather also has a row of tiny hooks that help to deaden the sound of air hitting the wings’ leading edge.
The Barn Owl’s characteristic heart-shaped face, or ‘facial disk’, collects and directs sound toward the inner ears, via ear openings inside the facial disk just behind the eyes. The ear openings are shaped differently and placed asymmetrically, one higher than the other so that sounds reaching the ears are heard differently which helps the owl’s brain work out the exact position of the sound source.
Barn Owls are generally most active at dusk and dawn, typically leaving their roost site and ‘commuting’ across unsuitable habitat to reach a favoured hunting area such as a patch of rough grassland. Relying mostly on sound to locate prey, they fly low (up to about 3 metres) and slowly, back and forth across suitable habitat until they hear a small mammal below. Before pouncing, they will often hover, waiting for the perfect moment, although sometimes a Barn Owl will fly along and then suddenly drop straight into the grass. When the owl strikes, it starts with a head-first dive before pulling its head back and replacing the facial disk with out-stretched talons – ready to grab the prey.
Do look out for these remarkable animals – we are so fortunate to have them living and breeding in the middle of town, especially as there are estimated to be only 4,000 breeding pairs in the UK.
Libby Ranzetta, Chairman, Bury Water Meadows Group
Photo credit: Chris Cross
