BARN owls in Worcestershire are under threat in what is being described as “the worst breeding season for 30 years”.

The Worcester Barn Owl Conservation Group (WBOCG) has found numbers of the popular farmland bird have decreased dramatically since 2009, with only four nests found in a recent survey, compared to the usual 13.

Bird numbers usually start to increase once the weather starts to get warmer after the winter but a report by the British Trust for Ornithology found deaths had increased by 208 per cent at the end of March this year.

The organisation has blamed 2012’s extremely wet summer for a drop in numbers. Many birds were prevented from hunting, leaving chicks starving in their nests.

Roy Fowler, who founded the WBOCG in 1986, described the statistics as “grim reading”.

“It is sobering to reflect that 100 years ago the barn owl was a common farmland bird,” he said.

“If this year is anything to go by, this beautiful bird is now far scarcer than it was in the 1980s, when it was estimated to have declined by 70 per cent since 1932.”

He added he was concerned things were only going to get worse.

“We need to do something but nobody can do anything about the weather,” he said.

“There was a report that in the last 180 years we’ve had cycles of 30 to 40 years of good winters followed by 30 to 40 years of bad winters.

“If history repeats itself, the last two years could be only the start of a new cycle of bad winters.”

Mr Fowler said the decrease in numbers could also be due to an increase in buzzards, which prey on barn owls, and action had to be taken now before it was too late.

“We’ve got to secure the future of the remaining barn owls,” he said.

“The problem is female owls are very clever – if she’s had a bad winter she won’t take on the responsibility of having a family.It’s a very precarious situation.”

Mr Fowler appealed to eagle-eyed readers of your Worcester News to contact him on 01905 22968 if they spot an owl around the area so the organisation can focus its conservation efforts on locations where the birds are more common.