An urgent visit to Slindon
Warren Barn, Slindon NT
Katie contacted me recently explaining that one of the barns at Slindon NT (Warren Barn) was unsafe and the roof was being propped up and they needed to get in to close up the barn owl box before urgent renovations started to removed the roof and repair the damage caused by the death watch beetle.
Unfortunatley, with all the terrible rain and subsequent flooding there had not been a good day to do this until today.
This barn owl box is high up in the roof of the barn, historically it has had owls breeding and Katie’s team had already put up an alternative box on a tree nearby the barn in mitigation ready for the barn owls upcoming breeding season. They plan to install another in a tree just further along from the one they put up today.
New Barn Owl box in tree behind the barn.
The existing box is too high for any of my nets, so we crept into the barn and put the long ladders up. It wasn’t until I was 2/3rds of the way up the ladder that a male barn owl flew out silently over our heads.
What a beautiful sight it was to see as he headed out and over the fields. Hopefully he will find the new box and use this to roost in, though there are 5 other boxes on the estate he could utilise. I cleaned out the box and Katie sealed up the entrance.
This can be re-opened once the work on the barn has been completed.
New box in situ.