Barn owl numbers in Co Meath on the increase

At first glance humans and barn owls would appear to have nothing in common.

However, in one respect our behaviours might match. Many humans go to the supermarket, purchase food and then bring it home, some for consumption immediately and the rest stored away for future use.

According to Dr Alan McCarthy of Birdwatch Ireland, barn owls do much the same thing.

As part of a Heritage Week talk at Meath County Council's headquarters, Buvinda House in Navan, he said that during the breeding season the barn owl will hunt for food, bring it back to the nest and consume some but similarly put some by for the future. And to illustrate the point he showed an image taken in a nest depicting a seven-piece food store of shrews and black voles.

Birdwatch Ireland and its Meath Branch have been engaged in a barn owl survey in the county over this summer.

Although final results of the survey are yet to come, Dr McCarthy said that preliminary results found that Birdwatch Ireland members had located six confirmed nests and three possible nests this year. Barn owls were confirmed in 42 per cent of Meath's 10km squares and it seems there are more barn owls in the west of the county compared with the east.

"Breeding range of barn owls in Meath has not yet recovered to the extent it was 50 years ago," he stated. "The range has started to increase over the past 10 years".

The survey in Meath was funded by the Heritage Council and Meath County Council as an action of the County Meath Heritage Plan.

One of the biggest threats to the owl population is the widespread use of rat poison around farmyards. Rats may take up the poisonous bait put down for them, the owl will catch and eat the rat and the suffer secondary piisoning. It might not have lethal effect in some cases but may have effects on breeding, Dr McCarthy explained.

Quoting another survey of barn owls carried out 10 years ago, he said that 88 per cent of barn owls showed traces of insecticide in their system, "a massive proportion of thre population". Insecticide can be found right through the Irish food chain.

Yet another threat to the barn owl population lies in the increase in the road network in Ireland. Roadside verges provide good hunting ground for owls so they are drawn into this "danger zone" and become fatalities.

He said that last year Birdwatch had "an interesting but sad" occurence in the case of a barn owl which hadn't adapted to the dangers on the roads.

The organisation had a nest box in Co Offaly and a barn owl had gone into it in 2022. One of the chicks from that nest was found last year right next to a motorway. It had been struck by a vehicle but had not been killed. Someone found it, brought it in for rehabilitation and it was nursed back to health. It was released but was again struck on a road and died. Mitigation measures against this are now under way and all new major roads have diversion systems put in place in order to reduce fatalities.

The lecture was well attended and the attendance included Loreto Guinan, heritage officer and Wendy Bagnall, senior executive planner with Meath County Council.