Farm Tours and Barn Owls: Some Good News from a Challenging Summer
- Lynda Croft
- Jul 30
- 3 min read
Despite some of the hottest days of the year, we were delighted to welcome around 250 visitors to this summer’s farm tours. The tours are an important part of our commitment to engaging with local people, helping them to understand modern farming, the countryside and the environmental work taking place across our corner of Suffolk.
It was wonderful to see so many local residents enjoying the countryside, asking questions and learning more about the work that goes on behind the scenes. From crop production and wildlife habitats to conservation projects and renewable energy, there was plenty to explore, and we hope everyone left with a greater appreciation of both farming and the work that we do to support the environment. While it has been a challenging season in the fields, with prolonged hot, dry weather affecting many of our crops, the farm tours gave us the opportunity to share some positive conservation stories.
A highlight of the tours this year was discovering that our barn owl population is flourishing. We have installed many barn owl boxes over the years to create nesting opportunities for one of nature’s pest controllers. By keeping rodent numbers down, they create balance and protect the crops - not to mention being a beautiful sight!
Local bird enthusiast, Mark Fagg, keeps an eye on the boxes and checks them every spring for chicks. Mark arranges for a trained expert authorised by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) to visit and all the young owls on the estate are carefully ringed with unique identification numbers before being registered with the BTO. This allows valuable information to be gathered about owl movements, survival rates and local population trends, helping the BTO build a better understanding of barn owl numbers in the area.
Sadly, there were no chicks on the estate last summer, but this year we were pleased to show one lucky farm tour the ringing of three healthy barn owl chicks from one of our boxes. It really was a treat to see the chicks and hear from the BTO expert. They can tell the age from their weight and also whether they are male or female from markings under their wings!
Many thanks to everyone who joined for a tour this year. The enthusiasm and interest shown by you, even during some very hot evenings, made the tours a real success. We hope you enjoyed the experience as much as we enjoyed sharing it with you, and we look forward to seeing you again next year.
Thank you also to our very capable tractor drivers Olly, James, Rob and Will, from Brett Vale Farming Company. You were all amazing.
A Final Update from Our Young Owls
To finish, we are thrilled to share a recent photograph of the three young barn owls near the site where the chicks were ringed in June. They were taking their first flights outside. You can see that they have grown tremendously since ringing day and are looking healthy and strong. This is encouraging evidence that the work being carried out across the estate is making a real difference.
Thank you to Mark for the photo and your support for the local barn owl population.
Please join our mailing list HERE if you would like to hear news and be notified of future events.
Photo credits: Clive Hayward and Mark Fagg.
