The Essex Barn Owl Conservation project is now in its 6th year, and our volunteer barn owl monitors have been busy checking for signs of occupation in the over 250 nest boxes that have been installed as part of the scheme.
Recently Essex WIldlife Trust Biological Records Centre received funding from Caring for God's Acre to run a number of adult education courses as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded Beautiful Burial Grounds project. The first of these courses covered the identification and surveying of veteran trees within the landscape.
The Essex Barn Owl Conservation project has contributed data to the "National State of the UK's Barn Owls" report for the second year running. The report suggests that 2017 was a good year for barn owls, with nesting occupancy 24% better in Essex than in 2016.
A new report by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has found that almost a fifth of saproxylic beetle species are being pushed towards extinction due to loss of tree cover, putting them amongst the most threatened species groups in Europe.
