Tribute to John Scott who sadly passed away
on Sunday 30^th October 2022

John was a founder member of the Wirral Barn Owl Trust since its inception in 1999 and was the Honorary Secretary for many years. He was very much involved in the installation, replacement, and maintenance of nest boxes and the monitoring of Barn Owl nest sites throughout the years come rain or shine. John was a stalwart of the trust and was universally popular amongst his fellow trustees and members, he was renowned for his polite gentle nature and his kindness and consideration of others.

Annual General Meeting

The Trustees of Wirral Barn Owl Trust are pleased to announce our AGM, as required by our Constitution.

The meeting will take place at 7:30 pm, Wednesday 23^rd November 2022, at Mayer Hall, The Village, Bebington, Merseyside CH63 7PL. Light refreshments will be available.

All subscribing members are eligible to attend, and we look forward to being able to meet and discuss the Wirral Barn Owl population.

Some vacancies have arisen on the Executive Committee, and any subscribing member who is desirous of standing for election to the committee is requested to contact the secretary at  secretary@wirralbarnowltrust.org

We also now have a new Postal Address:

Wirral Barn Owl Trust
^c/o 2 Abbey Road
West Kirby
CH48 7EW

BREEDING SEASON

The ‘Ringing Season’ is almost at a conclusion and to date, 33 pulli have been weighed, checked and ringed, with the information being forwarded to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

Whilst this is a significant and welcome increase on last year’s figures (16) it is by no means adequate, and these wonderful creatures continue to be ‘at risk’. Most of the breeding, once again, was located in the South of the Wirral, with a couple of noticeable exceptions, the reasons for this are unknown and we can only speculate as to the cause. We encountered an adult Barn Owl roosting in one of our new Stokboard boxes which is encouraging, and we will continue to replace old and dilapidated boxes with this new design

We are now in the process of re-visiting sites that had chicks to see if they have fledged and sites with adult birds to check for signs of second broods.

LIVESTREAM – Those of you who monitor our Livestream will have noticed that there has been no sign of occupancy since March this year, the box was empty until 12^th February when an adult female bird took up residence, but sadly she did not stay long.

The funding we received from Liverpool City Region to maintain the live feed has now expired and to date, we have been unable to attract a sponsor to fund the next year. As you will all know the cost of Broadband is not cheap and like most small charities, we have seen a significant drop in donations.

As a result, we have taken the difficult decision to suspend the live stream from the nest box and will direct our limited resources to the monitoring and maintenance of the nest boxes. The live feed will be terminated at the end of August.

SUPPORT – As always, we need your support to be able to continue the work that we do, we are all volunteers and give our time freely, your donations enable us to purchase replacement nest boxes and maintain those which are in need of repair.

You may wish to consider sponsoring a nest box which would be installed and maintained by us in your name, and you would receive updates as to its progress.

We gratefully thank those of you who support us in the work that we do, so that we can continue to see these wonderful creatures in the wild.

Many thanks

Kind regards

WBOT.