HawkTalk Issue 90 Spring 2022

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HAWKTALK SPRING 2022 ISSUE 90

Marion Paviour Award 2021 We are thrilled to introduce Jaime Carlino, our 2021 Marion Paviour Award winner.

With the support of the Hawk Conservancy Trust, I am looking forward to another season in the field to collect data and learn more about Barn Owl reproductive success!” On 1 January 2022, Jaime featured as a guest on our podcast Nature’s a Hoot. Tom and Hannah had a fascinating discussion with Jaime, who shared that the favourite prey of the larger Barn Owls in the USA is gophers, and that the average Barn Owl family in the Napa Valley can eat around 3500 rodents a year! She also told them more about the views of wine growers and that Barn Owls are seen as a great species to have around, both in terms of their use to help keep rodent populations in check, in turn protecting their crop, and because the investment in conservation of Barn Owls reflects positively on their businesses as wildlife-friendly wine producers. We recommend you have a listen to find out more about Jaime’s fascinating work. Jaime will continue her field work in March 2022 so watch this space for updates!

Jaime is a graduate student at Humboldt State University (HSU) in California, USA, and the award will go towards her project studying Barn Owls. Jaime’s research project is investigating Barn Owls that live in the Napa Valley, California. It involves finding out where Barn Owls prefer to nest, how healthy they are and what effects these have on how successfully they reproduce. This work is particularly fascinating for us, as it aligns with our British conservation work providing nest boxes for owls and Kestrels. Jaime was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, an area well known for industrial-scale agriculture. Her interest in owls all began when she became involved with a local raptor rehabilitation centre at school! Jaime explains more about her project: “I am extremely passionate about raptors, and have a unique fondness for owls. Working at the raptor rehabilitation centre inspired an interest to study how raptors interact and function in agricultural landscapes. I study Barn Owls occupying nest boxes in the winegrape vineyards of Napa Valley, California. For some context, winegrape growers in this world-renowned wine producing region install nest boxes to encourage Barn Owls, which are thought to provide pest control services by eating rodents. I am studying the effects of habitat preferences and the quality of individual owls on how successfully they reproduce each year. Previous students on the team found that Barn Owls in this area prefer wooden nest boxes at least 3m high, with grassland habitat surrounding the nest box. I am interested in whether these preferences are associated with increased reproductive success each year. In addition, I am also interested in the relationship between reproductive success and individual quality, by measuring variation in breast plumage, morphometrics (body measurements), and age.

Variation in breast plumage spots

Barn Owl chick and adult in a nest box