Cropwell Bishop Village Parish Plan

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Owl drops into Gardening Club Meeting (26-1-09)

owl The meeting on Monday 26th January was quite a departure for the Cropwell Bishop Gardening Club. No pictures of immaculate gardens or perfect flowers and vegetables. No instruction on how to prune, plant or propagate.
On this occasion 56 members and guests heard how the Rushcliffe Barn Owl Project is working to improve the declining Barn Owl population.
Clive James explained how the decline of these endearing birds can be attributed to loss of feeding habit and nest sites, poisons used to control rats and mice, drowning and road traffic accidents. The Project aims are to conserve and increase the population of Barn Owls in Rushcliffe by:
• Discovering the size and distribution of the existing population
• Increase the awareness of the needs of Barn Owls through advice
• Encourage the sympathetic management of feeding and breeding habits
• Providing artificial breeding sites in suitable locations
The Star of the evening was Clive’s seven month old hand reared Barn Owl. Lunar was certainly lovable if a little bedraggled due to a tangle back in the Autumn with a sticky fly paper!
The Gardening Club donated sufficient money to the Project to enable them to buy one of these artificial breeding sites (an owl box) and later this year we will know how successful the Cropwell Bishop Gardening Club box has been and hopefully have photographs of “our” barn owl chicks.
Judy Thomas