Barn owls

Yesterday after starting my blog I went to my scout group and if by fate a women came in showing us foxes, ferrets and a hedgehog she had all rescued but what really struck me was the European Barn Owl she brought in her name was Spirit and she was just beautiful but what was really sad was, was that our native Barn Owl the Irish Barn Owl is nearly extinct with only 60 - 80 left which was really sad as they are so beautiful.
 
                                           The lady said the two main problems for barn owls were that they only nested in stone barns and as farmers upgraded there barns the Owls found it hard to build there nests meaning no chicks and the second problem is when a rat eats poison and starts to get sick the owl thinks it's an easy kill so goes and eats it but if an owl eats about 8 poisoned rats it will die.

So how can you help the Barn Owls? ....

1. If you see a Barn owls nest tell your wildlife trust
2. If you live on a farm or know a farmer tell them ways to protect the owls by going on to Ulsterwildlife.com