Barn Owl Breeding Success
Since 2004, the volunteers and Rangers have carried out a programme of work to encourage barn owls to breed in the Northwich Woodlands. Our efforts were rewarded in 2012, when the first recorded breeding barn owls were found on the site.
On the 28 May 2012, we found an adult female with 4 young chicks. She was two years old, weighed 300g and was not ringed, so we don’t know where she came from.
Her four chicks were too young to sex.
We went back on 20th June with some trepidation, as the weather had been poor following our previous visit. We were concerned that the parents would have been unable to find enough food to feed the brood. We were disappointed that only one chick was still alive, but delighted that it was a healthy looking female. The young bird was 51 days old and weighed 400g, considerably more than the 300g her mother weighed 3 weeks ago. This extra weight will be used to complete growth of its flight feathers and enable the young bird to fledge in the next few days.
We hope that this chick fledged successfully and that we will have barn owls breeding regularly in Northwich Woodlands in future years. Our thanks to the Mid Cheshire Barn Owl Group for their help and support with this project.