Why you could spot more barn owls across Yorkshire this autumn

Yorkshire residents are being encouraged to keep their eyes on the skies this autumn, when they could have a better chance of spotting one of the countryside’s most distinctive birds.

October might be associated with autumnal walks, but Yorkshire residents should also keep their eyes on the skies, as autumn is a popular time for spotting barn owls.

Jonathan “Jono” Leadley is Head of Operations for North Yorkshire at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. In his spare time, he leads wildlife groups for Yorkshire Coast Nature and is a bird recorder for the York Ornithological Club.

“In my lifetime, it's probably easier to see a barn owl now than it has been previously,” Jono said, explaining the successful conservation efforts over recent years.

“The intensification of agriculture, mainly post-Second World War, caused a massive decline in their numbers,” he said. “The good thing is that they're bouncing back over the last few decades with a lot of concerted effort to help them, mainly due to the provision of nest sites.”

Barn owls have a ghostly white colouring, with distinctive ginger and grey patterning on their backs.

“Encounters with them can be quite ghost-like,” he said, “silently drifting over wild places like marshes, rough grasslands, and meadows.”

Throughout October, planning countryside walks at dusk or dawn can provide the best opportunity for sightings.

“In autumn you've just come out of the breeding season,” Jono said, “so it's the time of highest population.”

In summer, barn owls are often spotted hunting to feed their young. But by autumn, these juveniles disperse and, following a good breeding season, there are more barn owls in the skies.

Sometimes, daylight sightings increase after bad weather. As nocturnal creatures, barn owls typically emerge at dusk and hunt at night.

“In periods of bad weather where they can't feed at night they'll often then start to get hungry and they will continue feeding during daylight hours,” Jono said.

To support local populations, residents in rural locations – away from busy roads and with gardens facing open countryside – can install barn owl boxes.

There are also multiple sites across Yorkshire with regular barn owl sightings.

Jono recommends visiting Staveley Nature Reserve near Boroughbridge, where Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has installed nest boxes.

“Early in the morning or late in the afternoon during the winter you regularly see barn owls hunting over the grasslands of that nature reserve,” he said.

He also suggests Wheldrake Ings, near York, and Potteric Carr, near Doncaster.

For eagle-eyed birdwatchers, not all barn owls are the same.

“In Europe, there's a different subspecies of barn owl, which is known as dark-breasted barn owl,” Jono said.

“They have been seen in Yorkshire from time to time,” he said, “if readers see a barn owl that looks a bit darker than normal, that could be a European bird that's come here for its winter holidays.”