Growing Barn Owls in my Garden

Contents

Acknowledgments
Escape to the Lakes
A budding naturalist
Bannisdale days
Down on the farm
Getting to know Jane and Teddy
My first barn owls
Other owl encounters
The arrival of Barney
Home-bred success
Hunting skills
Preparations for release
Bird ringing
Increasing my breeding stock
Back on the farm;,,
Farm-bred success
An unexpected treat
Free to come and go at last
Working with Chester Zoo
The decline of the barn owl in Britain
An early setback
Back at the zoo
Money problems:
A barn owl "shoot" (part one)
A barn owl "shoot" (part two)
The price of success
Finding release sites
Public presentations
Equipping sites and trapping prey
Monitoring release sites
The secretive barn owl
A different approach
Some ups and downs
Fred's story
A fortunate rescue
Hazards of the job
Last release
Reflections on barn owl conservation
Appendix: barn owl facts
Some useful contacts
Further reading

This is a story - a simple, absorbing, entertaining story of how Paul Hackney became addicted to barn owls and how he gave back much of the pleasure he derived from the birds by running a reintroduction scheme.

Passion is such an over-used word nowadays, but it is difficult to see how Hackney could have carried out his conservation work, together with a full-time normal job, without the sort of commitment that most of us find impressive. An apparently idyllic childhood in the Lake District introduced him to rural life and farming, and he learnt about wildlife - and death. Meeting Jane Ratcliffe, a pioneer of owl rehabilitation, (Fly High, Run Free) he was sucked into conservation as active natural history and never looked back!

Hackney moves from an amateur interest in conservation, to becoming an experienced, if wary, 'media expert'. He underlines the need to take a professional, not purely sentimental, attitude to caring for and reintroducing birds, with emphasis on the need to ensure that every release site has to be provided with appropriate habitat and adequate prey. His successes are documented, with the delight they bring - and some failures too. Our countryside is becoming steadily less barn owl-friendly but Hackney makes the point that recent conservation policies have been successful, to a point, and populations are now regarded as stable. He also repeatedly emphasises the legal background and is critical of well-meaning but uncaring attempts at reintroduction.

The book is episodic and the 36 chapters are short. They are enlivened by conversations, often in dialect, and often humorous. This is not a book about birds alone - much of the interest comes from the people the author has to deal with. This is an easy book to read, and easier to enjoy. We learn about Barney and why she wasn't male, how to build an aviary, the unusual sexual preferences of the inhabitants of north-east Staffordshire, how to ring a bird, how helpful DEFRA staff really are, how TV wildlife programmes are made, how not to pick up a mouse, and many other useful factoids. But the underlying theme is, the need to care for our wildlife and in particular, the barn owl.

So, if you're interested in wildlife and want a book to enjoy reading, this is it. The colour photo section is a bonus. And the book is produced with Whittles' customary care, so don't expect spelling mistakes.