Welcome to the
Barn Owl Monitoring Programme (BOMP)

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Click here for Colin Shawyer's latest update on the 2008 breeding season.

Introduction

The Barn Owl is a very special species, much loved by country folk and an icon of the way in which wildlife has lost out in recent years to the changes in farming and country life in the UK. Numbers have plummeted since the 1930s, but in recent years, many people in the countryside - landowners, farmers, conservationists and birdwatchers - have invested a great deal of money, time and energy in an attempt to reverse this population decline.

Fortunately Barn Owls take very readily to nestboxes in the UK. As a result, the number of nestboxes put up for them has mushroomed. Following the Barn Owl declines noted during the Hawk Trust national survey in 1982-85 (see Section 2: 'The History of Barn Owl Surveys' below) the number of nestboxes has risen from around 6,000 to approximately 25,000 in the mid 1990s. Barn Owl groups have been established throughout the UK, many as part of the Barn Owl Conservation Network, which aims to increase Barn Owl numbers from 4,000 to 6,000 pairs by 2012.

The Barn Owl is now one of the UK’s best-loved birds but the population has declined severely over the last 100 years.

One of the recommendations to come out of the national survey Project Barn Owl in 1995-97 was the need for an annual Barn Owl monitoring programme. Many Barn Owl workers already submitted data from the sites that they monitored to the BTO Nest Record Scheme. However, there was still a great deal of local information not reaching the national scheme and, until recently, no information was being gathered on nestbox occupancy rates (ie changes in the numbers of Barn Owls that attempt to breed each year). The Barn Owl Monitoring Programme (BOMP) aims to plug this gap. The data being gathered for the Programme enable us to understand more about Barn Owl population dynamics and also provides important feedback to the conservationists working to preserve this popular and well-loved species.

Can I take part?

BOMP recorders are required to make several visits to the same Barn Owl nest site(s) each year and record the nest contents. In addition, BTO ringers are asked to collect additional biometric data for both Barn Owl chicks and adults.

Barn Owl is on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, and a licence is needed to disturb them when they are nesting. BOMP participants should apply for this through the BTO. However, to ensure that licences are only issued to bona fide recorders, non-ringers need to provide two references with their application. These should be from a recognised authority such as a BTO Regional Representative, bird ringer, Chairman of a Bird Club, a County Recorder or an existing Schedule 1 holder.

Please note that we already have very good coverage for BOMP in many areas. Our current priority is to find new Barn Owl sites to fill in the ‘gaps’ in our geographical coverage (see map in the section entitled 'The history of Barn Owl surveys' ).

For further information about registering sites for the Programme, or a Schedule 1 application form, please contact the Barn Owl Coordinator, email: .

For other useful links, please see Useful Barn Owl links

Read on to find out more about the Barn Owl and BOMP.

Next - History of Barn Owl Surveys