BARN owl numbers in Worcestershire are recovering this season thanks to a good spell of weather.

This follows last year's poor weather which badly affected the number of birds across Britain.

Worcester Barn Owl Conservation Group is in the process of recording the results from its 34 breeding pairs in the county and has already noticed a huge improvement on last year.

Roy Fowler, founder of the group, said: "So far, we have checked about 50 per cent of the boxes in the county. It is so much better than last year, as about 45 per cent of them now have produced young so far."

He said last year was one of the worst they had had for a long time, when they could only find two out of about 40 pairs which had reproduced. One of those owed its success to the bird's food being provided by the landowner.

Problems last year were linked to persistent rain and cold weather, which affected the barn owls' ability to hunt because their feathers can easily become waterlogged.

There was also a significant drop in the vole population, the bird's main prey, which was also partly the result of bad weather.

A combination of these factors meant that some barn owls were too weak to have young.

Due to the deaths of many adult barn owls, some of the birds may also not have had a mate for the season.

Mr Fowler said the bird's survival was down to its secrecy and, because they were very shy, they were difficult to keep a track of.

"They are the most difficult to monitor as they are so elusive, but this news is absolutely fantastic," he said.

As well as the problems caused by the weather last year, there is a longer-term problem with barn owls being badly affected by habitat loss and a reduction in the number of possible nest sites.

Mr Fowler said: "The habitat is absolutely vital to their survival, which helps the barn owl population grow. We have done a lot of habitat creation with land around the boxes to make sure we can help them as much as possible."

Barn owls are now so rare that they have special protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it an offence to intentionally disturb the birds while they are preparing to nest or during the actual process of breeding.

For more information about the group, contact Mr Fowler on 01905 22968.