Barn owl

[bombaydave2]

Any more sightings of the owl, Dave?

3 sightings around franklin in last month. 2 reported to me and I saw a BO about 3 weeks ago.

[Mike Bickerdike]

Any more sightings of the owl, Dave?

3 sightings around franklin in last month. 2 reported to me and I saw a BO about 3 weeks ago.

Where exactly Dave?

[Ken George]

Any info about what time of the day the sightings were? Dusk, dawn, after dark? Were the owls flying or sitting somewhere?

[fras444]

Any more sightings of the owl, Dave?

3 sightings around franklin in last month. 2 reported to me and I saw a BO about 3 weeks ago.

Where exactly Dave?

I'm not sure if you have been following the past few posts but there is a fear that some people with a bit of xenophobia towards anything that comes from Australia, like what we saw with the Pelicans back in 2014 with fishermen fearing for their fishing stocks, a number of people on facebook are wanting these barn owls to be eradicated because they were these "not native australian imports" as well as potential for DOC which I assume haven't confirmed nor denied any potential control programs towards the barn owl and the main reason ......
A lot of these sites barn owl sites are on private farmlands and if you see on the news, people's farms being robbed, live stock being hustled and whatnot so many people do not want (quite rightly) random people walking over their paddocks (no matter how genuine a geeky birder with a "massive camera" in their hands... who knows.... some people might have something more than "just crops" growing in a bottom corner of their paddock..
Living in Scotland...,
I'd absolutely love that law Scotland has, which England does not...(Although England does has many 'right of way' paths throughout the English countryside) To be implemented here in NZ
Access rights/right to roam....
Basically in Scotland,
As long as you are not trekking over obvious private property or defense grounds and leaving farms as you left them... i.e rubbish and gates... You can basically walk and camp wherever you want in Scotland.

[jameswickham]

Any more sightings of the owl, Dave?

3 sightings around franklin in last month. 2 reported to me and I saw a BO about 3 weeks ago.

Thanks, though I meant the Waihi owl specifically. Have you seen it again?

[Ken George]

For any NZ birders wanting to do some homework on Barn Owls, their JIZZ and flight styles, pending their probable dispersion down the northern half of the North Island, there are many excellent Barn Owl videos on YouTube. I recommend Robert Fuller's films. His feature the English Barn Owl, but the information is still good.

[Neil Fitzgerald]

Could you post a link? My search was swamped by loads by Robert E Fuller.
Good test of new media embedding too:)

[Ken George]

Here's a couple of links to the YouTube videos. The first is to one of Robert Fuller's films, he has done a whole series over a few years, and they're all worth a look. The second link is a good general Barn Owl description, and has some good flight sequences. They are plenty of more videos, including a couple from Australia.

Willow and Ghost

Barn Owl Facts

[fras444]

For any NZ birders wanting to do some homework on Barn Owls, their JIZZ and flight styles, pending their probable dispersion down the northern half of the North Island, there are many excellent Barn Owl videos on YouTube. I recommend Robert Fuller's films. His feature the English Barn Owl, but the information is still good.

As someone who is deeply fascinated with "self-introduced/native" species...

The Barn owl, along with the Nankeen night heron. I've spend many hours pondering their spread and where that may end up and where would be the "ultimate" habitat that would set them up/be the one thing where their numbers would just absolutely skyrocket...

Both...,
The Nankeen night herons and the Barn owl....
That Bay of Plenty/Waikato region would be that habitat that would well and truely set these birds here as an established species....
For the Barn owl, the BOP/Waikato has all the habitat, old conifer trees, barns and the like, along mice/rat infested milk sheds and barns for them to just explode as a population...
Same with the Nankeen night herons. But more in the form of the many dams along the Waikato river and all of those bush lined tributaries that flow through the Waikato farms into the Waikato, along with the mangrove estuaries of the BOP that are rich in habitat and food for the Nankeen night herons..., Once that population in Whanganui expands into the Waikato region.., Even into those native forest lined rivers that flow from Mount Taranaki... That would be the goldilocks zone in regards to the prefered Nankeen night heron habitat and, once those birds eventually spread into that habitat, that would well and truly establish that population and have the nankeen night heron population explode...

[bombaydave2]

Agree with Ken. Once you see a BO fly you will recognize it again. A few birds that could be misidentified at dusk/ dawn. WF heron has similar wing flaps and broad wings but size obvious. SW plover similar size but flight much more eratic and noisy! Obviously more pork. Kaka fly at night. For calls possums and SF cockatoos are often misidentified as BO.