Thank you!

A huge thank you to everyone who has submitted owl recordings to the Owl Watch database so far. We have had a whopping 380 records submitted from March to October 2018, amassing to 405 owls in total!

Wild Watch patron, Professor John Altringham, shares his thoughts on Owl Watch –

‘Your response to the Owl Watch project has been astonishing. Your invaluable data is revealing the distribution and ecology of these charismatic birds in unprecedented detail. But we are not finished yet – keep those records coming in!’.

Where the owls have been recorded so far…

A note on the data

So far, the data you have sent us seems to reflect a higher density of owls in the central and upper-east Nidderdale AONB areas. The data we have collected could be bias towards towns and other urban areas rather than a representation of where owls are mostly likely to be found. In addition, some records we anticipate will be the same individual owl being reported multiple times by different people. However, when the data is analysed, the potential bias and duplicated records are accounted for to expose the true distribution so we can see what is really happening. This is very exciting data so far, so please keep sending in your records so we can continue to build up the picture of owls in Nidderdale!

If you see any sign of owl or other raptor persecution then please report it immediately to the police. See the North Yorkshire Police’s Operation Owl scheme here.