The Duhallow Raptor Conservation Project Report, 2012 is now available for free to download. It shows the results from last years project on Raptors in Duhallow, including all the fieldwork, nest box and publicity aspects to the work, many of which you will have seen illustrated on this blog.
Some of the highlights are:
A survey of suitable buildings for Barn Owls highlighted a site availability of 14.6 suitable buildings per 100km2 (range: 8 – 26), and located seven nest sites and 13 roost sites.
A density of 2.6 breeding pairs of Barn Owl per 100km2 was recorded, which is higher than similar findings elsewhere in the country.
An innovative playback and acoustic survey was also employed for Long-eared Owl for the first time in Ireland. A total of 6 breeding sites and 7 active territories were confirmed, representing a minimum density of 4.3 Long-eared Owl territories per 100km2.
A breeding success of 66.6% was recorded at six known breeding attempts for Long-eared Owl with an average brood size of 2.25 young per brood.
There were 22 Barn Owl nest boxes in place in Duhallow by the end of 2012, representing one of the highest densities of boxes in the country.
Ten Kestrel nest boxes were installed at suitable sites which marked one of the first formal nest box schemes for this species.
An awareness campaign promoted the 2012 project and its objectives, and the work was publicised through posters (136), and a wide range of events and presentations (12), articles in newspapers and magazines (9), and features on websites (2). This blog, www.duhallow.blogspot.com, was also set up to make the project accessible to the general public, and received over 13,000 page views from over 20 countries by December 2012.
To view the lower resolution PDF, see it on this page HERE.
To download the full report, go to this page HERE. (Opens a new window, on www.box.com, where you can view and download the higher resolution file. File size is 17Mb).
