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Chapter 1: What mysterious sound did Danny hear in Wexford?
We had an email with a recording in from one of our listeners, Danny, who lives in Wexford. I'll let you hear this bird. I'm sure you know what it is. It's a banshee. Oh, no, wait. It's a banshee. It's a barn owl. It's a barn owl. Actually, remind me about the banshee before we finish. I'll just read out the email. He says, I really enjoy your show. Hi, Derek and team.
Attached below is a sound I record outside my house in Wexford. We recently built and moved in about three weeks ago when I was bringing the dog out to go to the toilet before bed with him and the dog. I heard this sound most nights coming from a wooded area nearby and thought it was a barn owl. Chicks calling for food.
Then, one night, early last week, I heard it again, but much closer, and I could tell the source of the sound was moving. Then I saw the owl circling, and it flew low across the field behind the house, making the call. This recording was taken the night later, when it was circling over the house, calling, and then moved off across the field again. I looked it up online and found suggestions.
It was a male trying to attract a female to look at a prepared nest. What do you and the team think about this? Keep up the good work, Danny and Wexford.
I think Danny is absolutely spot on with his assessment there. He's right. That is a barn owl and it most likely is a male that's trying to find a mate. And actually, it's often the easiest way to detect barn owls, these unmated males trying to find a female. I heard one for about a week every night. Two years ago at my house in North Wicklow, there was one flying past.
It's quite a rare species in Wicklow, so that was a real treat.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of the Barn Owl's call?
And if they haven't found a mate at this time of year, yeah, they're desperate to find one, so they call. Otherwise, it's very, very hard to detect barn owls because when they fly, they are almost completely silent. Their wings make no noise whatsoever. So when they flap their wings, they have this special sort of baffling of fluffy feathers around the outer edge of their wings.
So when they flap them, they make no noise in the wind at all. It breaks up the air currents. So they only can be heard if they want to be heard. That's an adaptation so their prey doesn't hear them sneaking up on them. Mice, which is the main food they eat, they have very good hearing. So they hear the wing beats of most birds, but not of a barn owl. So that male wants to be found.
So if he wants a female to find him, he's going to have to scream like that. And hopefully if there's one within earshot and she doesn't already have a mate, or maybe if she does already have a mate but he's a better prospect, then she would hook up with him. But if he keeps going... She'll call back. She will call back, yes. And they will have this sort of courtship display.
The fact that he's doing it night after night and keeps going around the same area suggests that he hasn't found a mate yet. He may well have a nesting site nearby. And maybe perseverance will pay off because barn owls, they can live for a few years. And if he's in that area and that's his territory, well, maybe next year. If he doesn't have any luck this year, maybe next year.
So it would be in a barn somewhere close by, most likely. It could be a barn. So one of the limiting factors with barn owls is...
They might nest in a hole, if there's a big cavity in a rotten tree or a dead tree, or if someone has affixed a barn owl box to a tree, maybe the edge of a woodland. Owls are very interesting. We have three breeding species in Ireland. The long-eared owl, the short-eared owl, which is by far the rarest of the breeding species.
It's a very small breeding population in the Shlevebloom Mountains, that kind of area. And then we have the barren owls. The long-eared is by far the most common and widespread. It's a much more numerous bird than people expect because it's nocturnal and so well camouflaged. People just don't know it's there. And they use usually old crow nests.
So they're often high up in the trees, dense in a woodland, often in an old pine because their feathers kind of look like the bark of a pine tree. So they blend in very well there. And several times I've seen people walking through a woodland right below an owl nest. The owl is right above them on the branch, maybe two or three meters above their head, and they just do not see it.
Then with the barn owl, they want to nest usually inside a structure. So as the name suggests, often in a barn or an agricultural building.
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Chapter 3: How do Barn Owls attract mates with their calls?
Also in Ireland, often in old ruined castles or churches or derelict buildings like that. So sometimes they will find sort of gaps in the brickwork or maybe an old chimney. They like chimneys particularly. and they'll go in there. So that's where they'll nest. They do take well to nest boxes as well.
You can put certain models of them inside a barn or you can actually even have them on poles out in the open. So long as it's a nice sheltered large spot where they can raise their brood, they're quite happy with that. And then the third one, the short-eared owl, they nest on the ground. So they tend to be in open expanses like bogland or moorland where they can see predators coming.
They rely on their camouflage on the ground to blend in with the heather or whatever the vegetation may be in the area. So they're more vulnerable to predators like foxes. And that means that where you have areas where maybe plantations have gone in into bogland areas, it's places where foxes and pine martens and other predators can hide.
If you have places with maybe electrical pylons or something like that going across those areas, that's a perch for members of the crow family, like rooks and hooded crows. They can watch and they can find the nest more easily. So that's one of the factors that's been hitting that species. And the short-eared owl is actually active during the day, unlike the other two.
So if you see an owl during the day, it's most likely a short-eared owl, even though that's our rarest one. We get more of them in the winter.
Well, I have to say, we're getting tons of stuff from the listeners, which is fantastic. And thanks very much indeed to Danny for sending in that audio recording. And you heard his email. He didn't interfere with the nesting. don't go near any nesting birds. It is against the law. Stay well clear of them.
But if you spot something flying over the house or you spot something in the garden, take a little picture or an audio recording and send it to us. But don't go near any nest. But you mentioned the banshee. Yes. Now, I found on the road the other day, I didn't pick it up, a banshee's comb. Oh. And I said to my friend, I said, you're ridiculous.
I said, no, when I was a kid growing up, if you found an old tooth comb on the road that was missing some of its teeth, it belonged to a banshee. Oh, there you go. It could have belonged to you now. I...
It's a long time since I've needed a comb, Derek.
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Chapter 4: What adaptations help Barn Owls remain undetected while hunting?
I found one in Kilmacud in South County Dublin just the other day.