Barn Owl Winter Mortality

[Dennis Shirley <colimawarbler at yahoo dot com>]

  The question has come up about barn owls dieing off
this winter. This is probably going to be a "normal"
occurance this winter. A few years back the DWR and Dr
Carl Marti of Weber State picked up 109 dead barn owls
one bad winter.They were analysed in the lab and were
found to all have died of starvation. It was a year
like this one, deep snow early and cold temperatures.
   Barn owls are a "tropical" owl family and do best
in warm climates. Whenever a sudden cold/snowy winter
is experienced these northern populations suffer and
the numbers are cut back. Those that migrate early in
the fall will repopulate the area, but it may take a
while. I'm sure the low numbers we found on the
Christmas Bird Counts this year is a reflection of the
birds moving out. Those who stuck around are going to
have a rough time unless the snow rapidly melts.
Oftentimes one of the first observations of winter
stressed barn owls will be observations of barn owls
hunting during daylight hours. A more graphic scene is
finding many nest boxes with a pair of starved barn
owls inside.
  We havn't had severe winters the past few years, but
we're making up for it this year and all forms of
wildlife are going to be affected.

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