Vole Rains: A Turn of Fortune for Our Barn Owls
From the perspective of our local Barn Owls (Somerset), the past few weeks have been quite the rollercoaster ride—and not always in a good way. For a while now, there’s been a noticeable slowdown in the number of prey items being brought back to nest sites. This was a worrying development, and honestly, it could have spelled disaster for the growing owlets we’re watching this season. You see, 2026 has been a remarkable year in one respect: we’ve got some exceptionally large broods out there. More hungry mouths to feed is usually a wonderful thing, but it also means there’s zero room for error when food supplies start to dip.
I’ve written time and time again about how weather conditions can make or break a breeding season, and how weather is often the main culprit when broods fail or numbers drop off. In April, as the dry spell dragged on, I really started to get that uncomfortable sense of déjà vu. I’d seen this play out before: parched ground, slow-growing grass, and with it, a crash in the populations of the small mammals that Barn Owls rely on almost entirely—especially the short-tailed vole. It felt like we might be heading straight into another tough, lean period, and with such big broods to support, the stakes felt high.
One thing that’s been an absolute godsend, though, is our network of nest cameras. These have changed everything about how we monitor and understand what’s going on. Gone are the days when we had to visit nests physically to check on progress—which always carries some risk of disturbance. Now, I can simply sit back with a hot cup of coffee, watch the live feeds, and absorb every detail of what’s happening right there in the nest, without interfering at all. It’s given us such a clear window into their world, and this year, that insight has been invaluable.
Just a few days ago, on May 12th, during the Hawk and Owl Trust live show, I spoke at length about exactly this situation. I explained how prey deliveries had slowed to a trickle, and how the dynamic inside the nests had shifted dramatically. Only a few weeks earlier, many nests had what we call a “larder”—surplus food stored away, ready for when times got tough. That safety net had vanished completely. Now, there was no backup, no extra supply; whatever the male owls caught on each hunt was exactly what the family got to eat that day. Nothing more, nothing less.
You could see the pressure they were under. Normally, Barn Owlscan hunt day and night, but through observation we find them normally hunting under the protective cover of darkness. But these males were getting desperate. We started seeing them out hunting during the daytime too—braving bright sunshine, open fields, and all the risks that come with being active when they’d usually be roosting. This isn’t good news at all. Hunting by day and then at night drains their energy reserves much faster, putting them under real physical stress. It also makes them far more visible and vulnerable to predation. It was a clear sign that they were doing everything possible to keep their mates andOwlets alive, but it wasn’t sustainable long-term.
Then came the turning point. On May 3rd, something amazing happened: it rained. Not the long, relentless storms that can also cause problems, but short, sharp showers—just what the doctor ordered. Even now, as I write this on May 15th, it’s still raining off and on. The pattern has been perfect: bursts of rain, sometimes quite heavy, followed quickly by bright spells of sunshine. It’s exactly the combination that makes all the difference to the landscape.
Why does this matter so much? Well, it all comes down to our old friend that champion keystone small mammal the Short-tailed Vole. This can be the mainstay of a Barn Owl’s diet round theze yer partz, and their entire life cycle is tied to the grass. When the ground dries out and grass stops growing, voles struggle to find enough food, their breeding slows down, and numbers drop sharply. But give them rain followed by sun, and the grass shoots up, lush and green. And when the grass grows, the voles thrive.
Short-tailed voles are incredible breeders. Once conditions are right and the vegetation is thick and nutritious, they start pumping out young again. What’s more, their offspring grow incredibly fast—they can start breeding themselves at just three weeks old. That means their populations bounce back with astonishing speed. I’m already confident we’ll start seeing more prey being caught and brought back to nests very soon. Before long, I hope we’ll see those nest larders filling up again, giving the owls that vital safety margin we were missing just a couple of weeks ago.
There’s one more big factor that will shape how well things go from here: grass cutting. In many areas, fields are cut for silage, which is a crucial winter feed for livestock—but it’s also a major event for wildlife. When fields are cut right up to the very edge, every bit of cover disappears, and voles lose their homes, their food, and their protection from predators.
So, I’m going to make the same simple request again to every farmer and landowner reading this: whenever you can, please leave a strip of tall, uncut grass right along the boundary of your fields. It doesn’t need to be wide—just a narrow margin makes a huge difference. That small patch of long grass becomes a sanctuary. It’s where the voles can live and breed safely, and where our Barn Owls can hunt successfully. And it’s not just good for owls and voles; it helps all sorts of wildlife, from insects and small birds to hedgehogs and shrews. It really is one of the simplest, most effective things we can do to support nature on our doorstep.
This morning, though, I feel genuinely positive. It’s rare that I get to write about a situation where the weather has actually played ball and given wildlife exactly what it needs just when it mattered most. The rain has arrived, the grass is growing, the voles will bounce back, and our hardworking owls can breathe a sigh of relief. After a few nervous weeks, things are definitely looking up—and I can’t wait to see what the cameras show us next.
