Barn owls suffered a more than 50% decline in the latter half of the 20th century for a variety of reasons, but are now starting to experience a small revival here in Durham . This revival is thought to be due to an increase in rough grassland areas for hunting as well as a reduction in pesticide use.

However we cannot be complacent, and if we are to capitalise on this local revival we need to help barn owl numbers recover even further by providing places for them to breed. Hollow trees are now scarce in the landscape, and many old barns and isolated buildings have been torn down or converted, so nest sites are in limited supply.

Over the last 5 years the Durham Biodiversity Partnership has worked with Durham Bird Club to make and erect barn owl boxes in appropriate places. Originally the scheme was run just in the Wear Valley area as part of the Mineral Valleys Project. More recently County Durham Environment Trust (CDENT) has funded our work to produce a variety of nestboxes for priority species including the bran owl.

The scheme allows the partnership to buy materials for nestboxes and supply the materials and box designs to Frankland Prison in Durham for manufacture in their workshops. The Durham Bird Club are then involved in visiting potential sites, assessing their suitability and then the boxes are put up.

So far the scheme has built and erected over 40 barn owl boxes (erecting a barn owl box is no easy feat), and more are on their way. Other species to benefit from this scheme are the water vole, pine marten and tree sparrow. Fifteen mink rafts have been made as part of a monitoring scheme for water vole conservation with Durham Wildlife Trust, and over 20 pine marten boxes erected in woodland across the county. Tree sparrow boxes are being constructed with the off-cuts from larger boxes.

More information from info@durhambiodiversity.org.uk

Barn Owl Action Plan