Records show that barn
owls had never successfully bred at Alton Water since the reservoir
had been constructed in the mid 1970’s. They were, however,
present close by and used to breed in an old ash tree in a neighbouring
field before it was blown down in a storm over ten years ago.This
was quite surprising as the habitat appeared favourable with
plenty of strips of rough grassland for the birds to hunt for
their prey.
With
the help and support of the Hawk and Owl Trust five nest boxes
were erected at various points.It wasn’t long before a
pair moved into one of the boxes and three young successfully
fledged in 2004.Although the pair returned the following spring
they decided something wasn’t quite right and decided
to move on.
Efforts are
currently being made to investigate where they might have gone
and several additional nest boxes have been erected on adjoining
land in case they preferred these areas. Investigations have
been concentrated on increasing the local small mammal population
by operating artificial feeding stations and trying to link
habitat management regimes with small mammal activity levels.
