The bird man of Beurizot

The small village of Beurizot, Cote d'Or, is home to Hughes Baudvin who has written a new book entitled ‘ALBA’, the Latin name for the Barn Owl.

The book passes on 30 years of experience the association ‘La Choue’ has spent studying Barn Owls in their habitat, breeding, hunting and the problems of their survival

The fact that the book is written in French and English together with magnificent photography by Philippe Perrot gives the book an international interest.

La Choue, a society for the study and protection of owls in Burgundy, started a study ten years ago regarding motorway mortality of owls which culminated in an agreement with the motorway company SAPRR (la Société des Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhone).

Traffic deaths amongst the owls is associated with territory and habitat bordering the motorways. The loss to the Barn Owl population by road deaths amounts to around 200 a year, around 100 of these being breeding birds. As the young cannot survive even if only one parent dies over three years 1000 owls can be lost.

La Choue, have encouraged communities, individuals and churches to install nesting boxes in order to encourage breeding amongst Barn Owls and the rate of breeding from these boxes is on average 40% and in the region of 600 have to be placed in a radius of 100 kilometres, avoiding close proximity to motorway structure.

Despite being a predator the owl is itself under threat, in some ways beyond the scope of man to prevent. For the owl a light scattering of snow is an aid to nocturnal birds of prey as small mammals are easily detected running across the surface, but when the depth reaches over seven centimetres the mammals stay below ground. As the Barn Owl is unable to fast for more than a few days the choice is to stay and die or move to another area in the hope of survival. This, it is believed, is one of the reasons young Barn Owls leave Burgundy to travel south.

The stone marten is the only natural predator of the Barn Owl although the loss of eggs, young and adult owls due to the stone marten is only a few percent. However, because they use the same hunting grounds and the stone marten is able to scale a vertical wall they have no difficulty in preying upon the birds themselves.

The sites chosen by the Barn Owl to breed are those where it would roost throughout the rest of the year, dovecotes, church towers, barns and castles. Before man made buildings became available the Barn Owl would occupy natural sites such as cliffs or hollow trees. An ideal site is one that presents the least disturbance possible, not too bright, too windy or too noisy. A Barn Owl can lay up to 12 eggs in a clutch but the number of eggs laid will depend upon the amount of prey available and in a dry year no eggs will be laid at all.

The diet of the Barn Owl is only live prey and consists mainly of small mammals. The owl depends on a most effective hearing system to locate its prey as sight plays a very minor part. It is a fact that the Barn Owl is able to catch its prey in complete darkness. To be able to do this undetected a completely silent flight is required and is achieved by comb like fringes to the edge of the primary wing feathers avoiding audible air rubbing; the prey is ignorant to potential predator and the predator hears the movements of the prey, this gives the Barn Owl the nickname of the friendly ghost.

The book is available only through the association because all the money raised from its sale and the sale of the following books, the next on the Tawny Owl and the third on the Little Owl, is used to continue the work that has so far been so successful. Not only does La Choue carry on its work in France but as much as possible it helps finance colleagues in Eastern Europe.

In July it is possible to arrange small groups of around 10 people to visit a Barn Owl nesting box and between March and May group visits can be arranged to the forests to see Tawny Owl sites. These visits are all free, but donations towards the work of La Choue would be appreciated.

If you are inspired to discover more about the book, which costs 40€ plus 5€ postage, and the association write to

Hugues Baudvin
‘La Choue’.
Lignière
21350
Beurizot
Telephone 03 80 64 67 19