Owls (The British Natural History Collection Book 1)
Language: English
Pages: 163
ISBN: B00CBYXTEC
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
If you want to know anything about owls, this is the book for you. It reveals all sorts of curious and unexpected facts about the owls found in Britain and also some oddities about those found elsewhere. Chris Mead, who was one of Britain's foremost ornithologists, also gives readers helpful advice on how to observe and count their local owls and how to assist in protecting them. This edition is illustrated throughout with drawings and cartoons by renowned wildlife artist Guy Troughton. The hardback edition of the book also includes a gallery of colour photographs by Mark Hancox.
1933 edition of Bird Notes & News, published quarterly by the RSPB. This paper, titled ‘The Barn Owl in England: results of the census’, was the first to draw proper attention to a decline that had been suspected for several years but never tested (Blaker, 1933). Blaker’s paper provides a benchmark and, while lacking the statistical rigour of today’s monitoring tools, the results have been used subsequently to determine the scale of decline over following decades. That such an investigation was
bird caught in a deserted stable on Cramond Island by a visiting wildfowler during a severe snowstorm in December 1860. It was kept alive for a few days but then killed and mounted. BBRC records contain just seven individuals since 1950, the most recent of which involved a bird found at Egilsay, Orkney, in early summer 1986 (Rogers et al., 1987). Most records, however, come from the winter months (November to February). Tengmalm’s Owl is similar in size to Little Owl but with a proportionally
Barn Owl can deliver the talons with some degree of force into unsuspecting flesh. The undersides of the toes are rough to the touch, highly developed into numerous papillae which aid grip. In many species, for example Barn Owl, the talons and highly moveable toes are somewhat elongated, a feature that increases the size of the area that can be hit by the striking owl. While three toes are usually directed forward, and the fourth backward, owls will sometimes perch with a second toe directed
fail to hatch, perhaps a consequence of incubation behaviour or the degree of parental investment in the contents of the egg. It is known, for example, that egg failure rates, aside from those related to predation, may vary between species in a consistent manner. A comparison of failure rates for Barn Owl, reported to be in the range of 15–30 per cent in some studies, exceed those seen in Sparrowhawk, something that it is believed may be linked to differences in the allocation of nutrients to the
Owls passing south are young birds (averaging c. 80 per cent) and these tend to peak slightly later than is the case with the adults. From what we have said of the link between diet and movement pattern, we might predict that more migratory populations of American Barn Owl show greater dependence on microtine rodent populations and a less diverse diet than is the case with populations living elsewhere. SUMMARISING THE MOVEMENTS OF BRITISH OWLS As we have seen from this chapter, our owls