Hi, I’m Paul David, a hobby photographer living in the beautiful Peak District in England.
Our lovely home is an old farm with a little bit of land. Although we don’t have any livestock on it, the natural habitat means we get a wide variety of wildlife, and the majority of my photographs are actually taken in our backyard, so to speak.
I’ve observed both Barn Owls and Tawnies in a couple of our fields, so I’ve made it my mission to get them to adopt it as their home. Fingers crossed, I hope to attract a breeding pair that will nest and have some chicks here.
Step one to getting the barn owls to stay around and nest is obviously to build a suitable home for them to roost in and ultimately then nest, so I’ve done just that.
Using some old oak whisky barrels, I have made three barn owl boxes. Two of the boxes I’ve installed in trees and one box I’ve put inside an old barn-type building.
The whisky barrels make great nest boxes for the owls, and as I’m recycling them, it’s great for the environment, too. Being oak, they’re warm, dry, and solid, making them the perfect home for an owl. They should last years.
Having spent more or less a lifetime in CCTV, I’m well equipped and skilled at installing CCTV cameras in owl boxes, so I’ve done that. Each box has 3 CCTV cameras for different views, including one of the outside perch. I record the cameras on an NVR (Network Video Recorder) and stream some cameras directly online to this website.
While I’ve read up on barn owl behaviour, this is still, to some degree, an experiment for me. If it is successful, I will publish the plans so you can build your own barn owl box out of a barrel.
The good news is that the barrels have definitely been liked as a roost. I’ve got a male Barn Owl called Banjo who is using one nest box around five days out of seven as a roost. In another nest box, I’ve got two Barn Owls that have coupled up, one called “Bella” and the other called “Buster.” I’m hoping these will mate soon and have some owlets.
One of the boxes I put in a far corner of the field has been visited a few times by a Tawny owl, so I’ve made the box a little more friendly for a Tawny by making the entrance hole a little bigger. The box is a little too spacious for the Tawny’s liking, but I’m hoping to get one to nest in it. If that happens, I will post news about it.
If you want to be updated on the lasted Barn Owl Live news, please subscribe to my Mailing list.
To see my Wildlife photographs, have a look at my @PeakyWildlfe Instagram account. For frequent videos and news from the Barn Owl boxes, I’ve created a new Instagram account called @BarnOwl.Live. Pop along to Instagram and say hi.
Paul