If you regularly watch BBC Breakfast (BBC 1) you would have seen the beautiful Barn Owls, Tulu and Rosie. Tulu (who lives at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve in Norfolk) and Rosie (kindly loaned to us by Norfolk Falconry) were the stars of the show, even though it was a bit early for them to be up!  It was a very cold morning for all but being a CG farm and a nature reserve makes Pensthorpe is a great place for spotting wild Barn Owls and the BBC crew were fortunate to capture fantastic footage of a Barn Owl being mobbed by a Kestrel.

Tulu the Barn Owl with her handler, Keith, at Pensthorpe

Rosie the Barn Owl from Norfolk Falconry

The coverage focused on the success of the first year of our CG Barn Owl Project. We set up the project in February 2010 to investigate the benefits that Conservation Grade habitats bring to farmland biodiversity. The Barn Owl is a peak predator and therefore an ideal indicator of the health of the wildlife on farms. It’s presence means that all the small mammals upon which it relies for food are thriving, and in turn their food is also plentiful. The CG Protocol requires farmers to provide tussocky grass habitats and these are ideal foraging areas for Barn Owls. Voles, shrews and mice make their homes in the long, thick grass.

Good foraging areas are vital but in order for Barn Owl pairs to breed on farms they also need a suitable nesting site. As part of the CG Barn Owl Project we ensured that all the 50 CG farms taking part had nesting boxes. With the help of Colin Shawyer and his team of volunteers at the Barn Owl Conservation Network (they are all licensed for this sort of work!), we monitored each nesting box a couple of times during the breeding season to see if they were occupied by Barn Owls, how many eggs were laid, and how many chicks fledged, i.e. left the nest. Read all about the CG Barn Owl Project at www.naturefriendlyowls.org. Watch the BBC Breakfast footage here.

BBC Breakfast filming on a very cold January morning at Pensthorpe

Louise Hubbell reporting from Pensthorpe