Barn Owls and Angling

Did anyone see this programme yesterday ?
I did'nt see the programme but a thread has been started on the Barbel Fishing World site by Ray WOOD. Ray states that an apparent expert is saying that anglers are now the cause of the decline in Barn Owls due to the use of lead shot ?? Figures of at least 40 per cent of the deaths of owls were apparently mentioned.
I cannot confirm any of this due to the fact that I did not see the programme ,but I have no reason to disbelieve Ray who has emailed the BBC to complain.
Is this another sign of the anti angling bias of the BBC , apparently there were no supporting facts for the allegation.

Sorry,may have jumped the gun on this one.
I have just read an email reply from the beeb to someone who complained about the article. Apparently the expert who was performing a post mortem on an owl mentioned SWAN deaths by lead poisoning whilst he was being interviewed and obviously some people got it confused. The BBC say there was never any intention to blame angling for barn owl deaths.

Terry, does however show how sensitive we are getting about our image.
Can you please post the web-site address for BFW, thanks.

I fish several waters where there are owl boxes and a healthy population of owls.

The major reasons for the decline in owls is habitat loss.

Small farms have been absorbed into larger operations, with correspondingly less of the right sorts of buildings for them, coupled with the fad for barn conversions and the effects of agri-chemicals on the small rodents they eat.

I'm fortunate that I see these wonderfull creatures most mornings on several spots across Romney Marsh on my way to work.
There are several owl boxes on the banks of the Rother and these are used by the owls.I have spent many an evening carping on the river watching these owls feeding their chicks in the boxes.Absolutley Brilliant.

Well I suppose it does no harm for the media to know we will defend our pastime strongly.
I can't really understand why an article on barn owl deaths should suddenly have swans and lead shot mentioned, however I think we should give them the benefit of the doubt this time.

Clive the BFW site is www.barbel.co.uk

On the program was the only person in the country who does ortopsies on wild animals in the Uk. He was one of the people who found out about lead shot poisoning swans in the early 80's. As anglers haven't been using lead shot for nearly 20 years the program wasn't slagging off Anglers

Barn Owls must be one of the most enigmatic British birds!
Wonderful!
Colin has already said that habitat loss is one of the major reasons for their decline.
The other is road kill.
Barn owls fly along the hedgerows and road verges looking for pray, sadly, they then come into contact with vehicles, resulting in many deaths. The last figures I saw put the death rate from road accidents at about 3000 birds P.Y.

Whilst on this subject I like to recount a very sad and distressing tale that happened about 5 years ago, to a pair of BOs that lived and breed in a local Country Park (Daisy Nook CP Oldham) for at least 10 years. The birds actually lived/nested in some old buildings at the Park Bridge end of the park that were leased by a construction Co. from Oldham Council. The Co however, needed to relocate to larger premises, which it did, leaving the buildings empty. The council then decided in conjunction with the CP management at the time, that they needed to demolish the buildings as they were having problems finding another tenant.

It should also be noted here, that as far as I, my brother and the local birding fraternity (brother being an owl specialist of some note) knew, these were the only pair of birds in the East of Gt. Manchester.

My brother who was also a voluntary warden for the park at that time, along with many others birders who were in the know about the birds, made strong representations at many meetings about the proposal. Pointing out the above facts and that it was most likely, the birds would relocate themselves well outside the park.
It fell on deaf ears and they demolished the buildings anyway. The birds did as they said they would, and have never been seen since in the CP. My brother also tells me that he has not seen or heard from any of his birding friends of any BO in eastern Gt. Manchester since either.

Sadly, the CP not only lost its BOs, it also lost one of the finest birders and bird guides it had.

The grassed over area where the buildings once stood, are now affectionately known by all the local birders as the “Barn Owl Memorial Gardens”. As for the Council and the CP management it starts in B and ends in a plural S.

Sorry should read Chris
Sorry Chis!

Guy's,
It's worthwhile logging onto the BBC Countryfile website and reading the programme text of the matter.
The Bird specialist who was interviewed was doing postmortems on a Barn owl that was suspected of drowning on a cattle drink! It did relate to anglers lead shot being responsible for other bird deaths but he didn't give any time scale or numbers of birds involved and left it very much open ended in such a way as to imply that there was a problem still to be dealt with.
I think the remarks made, having heard and watched it I thought was mischevious and ought have been edited out.
As phil rightly states, the most fatalities of this beautiful bird can be attributed to road kills and also rodent poisoning for which very few people are dealt with for placing baits for rats and other vermin in unguarded locations thus allowing birds of prey to take poisoned carrion with the ultimate consequence it creates.
The BBC needs reminding by the Angling Governing bodies that we can no longer obtain lead shot that is allegedly accused of causing swan mortalities.
Anglers ought to demand to see the post mortem evidence when ever it presents itself