A pair of barn owls has surprised and shocked conservationists in Co. Down with the arrival of an extremely late winter brood of four chicks.
Ulster Wildlife said that the chicks were discovered in a nest at Ballycruttle Farm in November.
The chicks, which fledged or started to fly, in December, are one of the latest broods nature conservation charity has encountered in its work to protect the threatened farmland birds over the past decade.
Barn owl eggs are typically laid in April, with chicks normally fledging in June or July, occasionally later depending on the weather, but this brood has bucked the trend.
The species is one of Northern Ireland’s rarest and endangered birds, red-listed on the Irish Birds of Conservation Concern and protected under the Wildlife (NI) Order 1985.
It is estimated that there are fewer than 30 breeding pairs now left in Northern Ireland.
Barn owls
Katy Bell, senior conservation officer with Ulster Wildlife said she could not believe it when Dawn Stocking, the owner of Ballycruttle Farm, sent her an audio recording of “chicks snoring and rasping” in late October.
A visit to the farm confirmed the exciting news, but there was concern whether the chicks would survive given the extremely wet weather and floods.
“Barn owls struggle to hunt in wet conditions but thankfully the odds were in their favour, as small mammals were fleeing to safety providing easy prey,” she said.
This is the second consecutive year barn owls have bred at Ballycruttle Farm which Bell said is “a real testament to their wildlife-rich habitats and practices”.
It was not all smooth sailing for the barn owl pair as jackdaws took up residence in their nest box in March.
This led to the female moving to a nearby farm managed by the Kelly family where she bred with another male and had a chick.
However, the male barn owl at Ballycruttle would not give up and kept calling to woo the female back and eventually she returned, leaving her chick at the Kelly farm with the other male who continued to feed it.
The female then laid another clutch of eggs in her original box at Ballycruttle Farm.
Dawn Stocking, from Ballycruttle Farm, said that the story was “like a soap opera with all the twists and nail-biting moments”.
“I was, of course, disappointed when the female jumped ship to my neighbour’s fantastic farm and thought that we weren’t going to see any chicks at Ballycruttle this year at all.
“So, you can imagine my utter excitement when I heard babies snoring from the nest box – it was like Christmas had come early!” she said.
Wildlife cameras were set up to watch the chicks as they stretched their wings and took small hops before eventually taking their first flight.
“It has been absolutely magical,” Stocking said.
Ballycruttle Farm and Kelly’s Farm are part of the County Down Farmland Bird Initiative, a group project within the Environmental Farming Scheme, led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Northern Ireland (RSPB NI).
Michelle Duggan, conservation officer at RSPB NI, said it was great to see the hard work carried out by both farms yield positive results for barn owls, as well as creating a network of habitats between the two sites.
“The valuable seed-rich habitats maintained on both farms are an essential winter food source for the endangered yellowhammer, and also ideal hunting territory for barn owls to catch small mammal prey.
“Healthy hedgerows combined with areas of rough grassland allow barn owls to expand their hunting territory even further,” she said.
The chicks have been ringed to help identify and track the birds’ movement.