Wirral Barn Owl Trust

07/10/2026

Hello followers, Wirral Barn Owl Trust has the chance to win £5,000 through the Movement for Good draw.

It would mean the world to us if you could take a few minutes to nominate us as it would greatly help to support the work we do!

Please nominate Wirral Barn Owl Trust here:
https://movementforgood.com/draws/special

Thank you!

Nominate a charity for a Movement for Good award now.

04/10/2026

Fieldwork Report 3/10/26 - A long day!

After a long summer of monitoring we are back in the peak of maintenance and installations. Today we visited 3 boxes at 3 different sites.

The fieldwork team had an early start today to get to our first site before it was opened to the public. Here we cleaned out two different pole boxes that had jackdaw nests in and also gave our cameras a clean to make monitoring easier in the future.

We then moved to the second site of the day which has our highest installed box (approximately 7.5m high!). Due to some scheduled brickwork, we took the box down and moved it to a more regular height not too far away from the original position. This meant that some of the fieldwork team got to go in a cherry picker which was good fun!!

- Despite being such a high box it has been fairly productive over the last few years!

We then moved to our final site of the day, which was to a site where we will be installing a box next week. Here we chose a suitable tree for the box and worked out exactly where on the tree it will be installed.

Overall it was a fun but long day out with the team, made more exciting by swapping our ladders for machinery for a short time. We will continue to carry out maintenance and installations over the winter so that hopefully some of our fledged chicks will make themselves at home and maybe start a family of their own!

The WBOT fieldwork team

02/10/2026

If you have a minute to spare, could you please nominate us for a chance to win valuable funds to enable us to continue our work

17/08/2026

An update regarding the Ness Gardens Nature Day - Due to unforeseen circumstances we have had to cancel our attendance of the event. We still encourage everyone to attend as it is always a brilliant event with many other activities and organisations to go and see and speak to!

05/08/2026

Fieldwork Report 1/8/26 - New recruits

Today we visited 10 boxes at 8 different sites.

Today we were joined by two new recruits to the fieldwork team who joined us on a day’s monitoring and box checking. There was a bit of a mixed bag when checking the cameras in boxes but also a few promising signs

-At two of the sites visited we found wood pigeons occupying the boxes

-One site that had 3 chicks in was now empty, which is a promising sign that they have now fledged

-Two more sites that we visited had single adult birds in which is another positive sign for second broods

It was another fun day out in the field showing some new members the ropes, and also continuing to monitor our network of boxes across the Wirral!

The WBOT fieldwork team

27/07/2026

Very sad to learn of the passing of this wonderful birder.

The TV star, who found fame in the 1970s as a member of comic trio The Goodies, died on Saturday.

26/07/2026

Fieldwork Report 25/7/26 - A day of bonuses!

Today we visited 7 boxes at 5 different sites.

The morning started by visiting the box with what we believed to be the final chick (No.80) in it. Being an old box and not having a functioning camera, we believed there was only one chick in there, but to our surprise there were 4! (2 F + 2 M). Which now takes the total up to 83 chicks ringed in 2026 so far, an absolutely amazing year for barn owls on the Wirral.

The day continued with some general maintenance and box clearing out in the hopes to give our fledging owls potential places to raise families of their own.

-At one of these sites there was a female in a box with a male in a tree nearby, hopefully a good sign of things to come.

-The rest of the boxes we visited were empty this year and were cleared out in the hopes for them to be successful next year.

Overall this was an excellent day out, with more chicks and adults seen than expected. Today again showing that the heat has not impacted the owls too much but some long overdue rain would help the owls out massively. We look forward to monitoring our active boxes for a few more weeks to make sure all our chicks manage to fledge.

The WBOT fieldwork team

(Photo courtesy of Maria Haigh)

23/07/2026

This baby Barn Owl arrived in our care in an incredibly poor condition 💔

He was brought in alongside his sibling after they were found collapsed on the ground. Sadly, despite our best efforts, his sibling passed away just a few hours after arriving.

This little one was completely collapsed and barely responsive. With warmth, fluids and intensive care, he slowly began to show signs of improvement. However, for the first 48 hours he couldn't keep any food down, so we continued providing fluids and supportive care until he was finally able to tolerate small feeds which was a huge step.

We gradually increased his food as his strength returned. By the end of the week, he was standing on his own and before long he was feeding independently 🎉

Once he had lost all of his fluffy down feathers, he moved into one of our flight aviaries to build up his strength and flying skills. After proving himself to be a strong, confident flyer he was successfully released back into the wild🦉💚

19/07/2026

Fieldwork Report 18/7/26

After a busy couple of months in the height of ringing season today we returned to some monitoring and site visits.

Today we visited 8 boxes at 5 different sites.

- Two of these boxes had a single parent bird back in after chicks have fledged and we are looking forward to the possibility of some second broods!

- Another box had 3 birds in the we believe to be mature chicks that will soon leave the nest.

- The other boxes were empty and means that chicks have already lest the nest.

This is a promising sign for the year as there were concerns for some heat related mortality in boxes, but the early signs are showing that the owls are coping with this prolonged heat rather well. We look forward to continuing to check on the progress of our ringed chicks and monitor for any second broods that may occur.

The WBOT fieldwork team

05/07/2026

Excellent day yesterday at Poulton Hall Gardens,very enjoyable afternoon making new friends.