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A barn owl has been sighted at the farm perched on the gate! This is very exciting news!
Posted 9th August 2010 by Dan 
15 comments
On returning to the farm on Friday night (6th August), Howard spotted a barn owl perched on top of the yard gate! As you may be aware, there are a lot of tawny owls at the farm and they can often be heard on summer nights talking to one another, but this sighting of a barn owl is very exciting as they are a much less common species of owl!
Lynda is a particular fan of barn owls and has even requested help from various sources to help setup a barn owl nestbox in our barns (without any luck yet) so it comes as a wonderful surprise that it turns out we have a resident barn owl any way!
Although we are all thrilled to add the barn owl to the ever-increasing list of new wildlife staying at the farm, we are not completely surprised. Thanks to the planting of the trees on our land, the increase in prey for such wildlife has dramatically increased. There are so many mice and other creatures ferreting about the tall grasses that it must be a haven for birds of prey and owls!
The picture below is of a barn owl. It isn't the actual one at the farm but I thought I would post it anyway so you can see the difference between a tawny owl and a barn owl, just in case you are fortunate enough to hear or even see it on our LambWatch webcam!
Barn Owl![](<a href="http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/barn_owl.jpg)
[link] alt='Barn Owl' />
Tawny Owl![](<a href="http://www.nsdphotography.co.uk/images/tawny-owl-.jpg)
[link] width='300' alt='Tawny Owl' />
For more information on Barn owls and Tawny owls, including the sounds they make, the RSPB websites below provides all the info...!
[link] target='_blank'>Barn Owl RSPB Website
[link] target='_blank'>Tawny Owl RSPB Website
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alison 9th August 2010
How lovely to know you have barn owl. We are lucky enough to see one hunting in our bottom paddock quite often. I also switched on our outside lights one very rainy night and saw him/her gliding over the roof and down the field. I always thought they disliked hunting in the rain but ..there he/she was!.
maria 9th August 2010
I have heard a lot of owls but the only owl (not in a sanctuary or at a country show but in the wild) I have seen. close up and personal, was perched on the fence around the pond at our old house in Manchester. It was very exciting to see this sight.
maria 9th August 2010
It was a snowy owl.
Fi 9th August 2010
Not sure if any of the people who have been on since the beginning will remember, but one night I saw a white owl in the night. camgrabs were not working do there was no proof.
Helen 9th August 2010
I share Lynda's love of Barn owls. I think they are among the most beautiful birds in the whole bird world. This is wonderful news.
Chas 10th August 2010
Thanks for the posting Dan. Yes indeed Barn Owls are quite striking creatures, I was lucky enough to have four of them plus some chicks and a very large African Eagle Owl living next door for a couple of years so I remember them well, however they were in captivity which is sad to see and I am glad you have one which is free flying. Best Wishes.
Catherine&Family 10th August 2010
Ohh so that's what Alexandria heard that nightime checking in, very weird noise. She was wondering some kind of bird. And we notice the sheep seeemed scared? for some reason maybe thats why. Thanks for sharing it with us. 
Yaakov 10th August 2010
Nice bird, here in Israel they are not rare and when I was living in our village I saw them from time to time. They have voices like heavy snoring, and very loud screaming voice too..
claudia in nashville 11th August 2010
I read a fantastic book-Wesley the Owl. It is about Stacey O'Brien (the author and a scientist) hand-raising and living with Wesley. There was a reason he had to be adopted. Touching and funny and miraculous.
claudia 11th August 2010
Wesley was a barn owl
Helen 5th September 2010
Well, I think by now most people have seen the posts from the night of September 4th through the morning of September 5th about the barn owls. They were so exciting, unexpected, and stunningly beautiful. Their eyes were astonishing, and there they were ,just sitting, perhaps with one adult feeding a juvenile,.and looking as though they owned th sign - and maybe even the farm!
Helen 6th September 2010
The owls sighted on September 5th and September 6th are tawny owls, not barn owls. They made another appearance about 3.45 a.m. on Monday morning.
Jack Cournoyer 6th September 2010
[link] here is a sight you should enjoy.
Fi 8th September 2010
it seems the owl was in right quite a bit during last night. Thank you to the person who saved a camgrab of it in the camgrab gallery so we dont lose any of these amazing shots.
nick dawson 31st May 2011
please could you put a link to my web site seen as you have used my tawny owl photo thanks
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