Barn Owls and Other Birds

When I first moved to Helpston in 1997, I spent many fruitless but pleasant evenings wandering around south of the village in search of barn owls, but although there was a pair between Woodcroft and Marholm, I never found any near the village itself.

These days we are far more fortunate. Yesterday, as Lesley and I walked Henry between Royce Wood and King Street we saw two owls hunting over the fields towards and then across Broadwheel Road. Anyone standing by the last house in the Road would have had fantastic views of them. There was also a barn owl sitting in a tree just passed the Barnack level crossing at 8pm yesterday evening.

Today (1 March) at Swaddywell I spent an hour cleaning and repairing nest boxes. Several of them contained the skeletons of young birds from last season. Given how much it rained, I am sure many would have starved in the nest as their parents failed to find enough food to keep them alive. There was also a dead tree sparrow inside one box. This is the third time I have found dead tree sparrows inside boxes locally. Next-boxes have different sized holes. The smallest is 25mm and is designed for blue tits. Tree sparrows normally need a 28-30mm hole. Unfortunately they seem to be able to squeeze into the smaller hole, but unable to get out again, thus starving to death in the box.

There was also a flock of 30 linnets and about 10 tree sparrow, a snipe and a buzzard near Hilly Wood Barn.

Botolph.