Barn Owl on Stroma

[Restlessnative]

Hello i was wondring if anyone could help me a little please? Whilst i was on a day trip to Stroma in the sunny summer of 09 i happened upon/disturbed a Barn Owl that was living/roosting in an old house. It was very nice to see it but i felt a bit bad having disturbed it during the day.

The thing is when i was watching BBC Autumnwatch i'm sure i heard them say Barn Owls don't live as far North? I find this hard to believe as i've seen a Lost Barn Owl living on a North sea oil platform for 3 days last winter when the weather was bad and i'm sure i've seen them in Caithness over my years. I suppose the one on Stroma could of been lost aswell but the weather conditions were great and it was bang in the middle of summer.

Anyways it's been bothering me for a good while so any help and info will be great as i hate to think my ugly mug scared off the only Barn Owl in the North of Scotland hahaha.

[Kenn]

Barn Owls are resident in the area and some migrate across The North Sea so quite likely that one would have taken up residence on Stroma where there are so many perfect roosts.

[Restlessnative]

Thanks Liz, just shows don't listen to everything on TV.

[Restlessnative]

i think next time one of the BBC programmes is on i'll have to correct them with my new knowledge

[Gronnuck]

Early this year SWMBO and I had just passed the road to Harrow harbour on our way to Scarfskerry when a Barn Owl flew across the front of our car. We recognised it immediately having had similar encounters in the Lothians.
IMO Barn Owls will live wherever there is an adequate supply of small mammels for them to hunt.

[chirpy chick]

I've seen lot's of barn owls and we had one sittin on our house don't listen to autumn watch people they obviously don't know caithness

[nemosia]

To be fair it isn't that long ago that we didn't have Barn Owls in the county. At the time of the previous breeding bird atlas (1988-1991) there were none.

We are in the process of recording data for the new atlas and this picture shows, at 10km resolution, where Barn Owls have been recorded during the summer surveys (2008-2010).