The barn owl is a 'flagship' species, at the top of
the food chain, and its presence or absence is a good
indicator of the health of the countryside. This is the
enjoyable and informative story of the author's success
in restoring this beautiful bird to areas of the country
where its numbers had catastrophically declined. From an
upbringing in the Lake District, the author developed a
deep interest in natural history which became an
all-consuming passion. As a 'licensed rehabilitation
keeper', he cared for a wide range of injured and
orphaned wildlife, giving individuals a second chance by
returning them to the wild. He reveals how and why he
later graduated to barn owl conservation. The author
describes his many encounters with barn owls, from the
acquisition of his first breeding pair; 'Barney', a
completely humanised owl; to stories of the fascinating
array of people involved in releasing, studying, and
simply marvelling at this beautiful bird. Although there
is a funny side to most situations, there are also the
inevitable disasters and disappointments of conservation
work, such as the accidental or deliberate sabotaging of
releases or the killing of released birds. The reader
shares in the author's disappointment and frustration at
the sheer cost in time and money and his frequent
self-doubt about the success of the whole exercise.
However, there are descriptions of more enjoyable
activities such as bird ringing, watching home-grown
birds metamorphose from ugly pink scraps into creatures
of ethereal beauty, and the seemingly limitless energy
and enthusiasm of countless landowners and volunteers
who are totally committed to the reintroduction of the
barn owl. After almost 20 years, there is now evidence
of a marked increase in barn owl numbers in areas where
the author has worked. During this period, he bred and
released around 250 birds, put up nest boxes and advised
on barn owl-friendly approaches to land management.
These activities helped to reverse the decline in
population as areas were repopulated and also created
reservoirs of wild breeding barn owls, whose offspring
colonised other under-populated parts of the country.
The return of the barn owl not only heralds a brighter
future for the British countryside, but also shows, at a
time of great public concern about the state of planet
Earth, that the negative effects of human activity on
the environment can be reversed with effort, goodwill
and determination.
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