​Barn owl (Tyto alba)

​The winters of 2010 and 2011 saw a big decrease in the Barn owl population in our area in the Cotswolds. Just as I started taking wildlife photography seriously there were suddenly no Owls around! It has been a pleasure over the winter of 2012 and spring of 2013 to gradually find some surviving pairs and see them returning slowly to haunt the local fields and moors . In August 2015  I was delighted to be able to watch a family of three young owlets succesfully fledge from a local barn. More recently (summer 2018) I have been lucky enough to find a local pair of owls who can be very happy to perform close by over the stunning Cotswold summer meadows. In the winter 2020 / 2021, despite another bad breeding season, there seem to be a good number of adults in my local area of the Cotswolds, fingers crossed for a better summer for these enigmatic birds.

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