Barn Owls and Bookworms
A prize-winning story for children ages 8-12
“The voles are in the storeroom again,” said Dad. “The cats can’t keep up. And out in the field…” He shook his head. “I’m going to have to buy more pesticide.”
“Oh, Harold!” Mom covered his hand with hers. “I hate this. It’s so expensive. Do you think we’ll ever be able to start turning this into a no-poisons organic farm?”
Iris looked up. “Did you say voles are ruining our crop? I was just reading about that!”
“Not now, Iris,” said Mom. “We have a problem here, and it means cutting our expenses. We might have to postpone your dental work for a few months, and you know what the dentist said about that.”
“But I read…”
“And put that silly magazine down. Go do something useful!” Mom added.
“You heard your mother,” Dad said. “This is a grown-up conversation.”
Iris nodded slowly. But she knew she could help, if only they would listen.
Later that night she crept into her brother’s room and asked if he could help her on the computer. “I need to write to The Barn Owl Trust,” she said. “If we got a family of barn owls living here, we wouldn’t need so much pesticide.”
Robin patted her head in his annoying Big Brother way. “Your imagination is just working overtime, Squirt,” he said.
Iris stamped her foot. “Really! I was just reading about barn owls. In Israel, school kids are helping scientists find good places for barn owl houses. The article says that some farms have stopped using pesticide completely because the barn owls do such a good job of getting rid of pests. A family of barn owls can eat 2000 to 5000 mice or voles in one year.”
“So what? That’s nothing to do with us!”
“You’re wrong! Dad and Mom are worried about using more poisons on the fields, but they have to because of all the voles.”
Robin smiled in the superior way that was just as annoying as his head pat. “I never heard them say that.”
“Because you’re always using your ear buds. I’ll show you the article!”
She dashed to her bedroom and returned in a moment with the magazine.
“See? It’s about poisons and pests and what Israeli kids are doing to protect the environment. There’s a bunch of websites listed for more information.”
“Gimme,” said Robin, snatching the magazine from his sister’s hand. After he looked over the article, he stared at Iris. For the first time his eyes were filled with respect. “This might work!” He brushed a pile of clothes off a chair and pushed it toward her. “Sit, let’s find these websites!” In a moment they were buried deep in the Internet.
Suddenly Dad threw open the bedroom door. “What are you kids doing on the computer? Iris, you should be in bed.”
“Look, Dad,” said Robin. “This is about farming.”
Iris practically bounced in the chair. “We can get rid of the voles without poisons, Dad. Listen! ‘The Barn Owl’s diet consists mainly of small mammals,’” she read from the website. “Look, almost half of their diet is field voles. That’s what you said is eating our crop! It says the owls also eat common shrews, wood mice, and other small critters.”
Dad shook his head. “That’s just useless book knowledge. I’ve never seen any barn owls around here, so that won’t help.”
Photo by Bruno vanderKraan on Unsplash
Robin clicked on another link. “Here’s a video on habitat, the kind of places that barn owls like to live. We’ve got just the right kind of land for them. All we need are barn owl houses. You and I could make those, Dad!”
“I don’t know anything about making an owl house, or where to put it!”
“The website tells us,” Iris said. “And we found this, too.” She clicked on another tab. “This video says that in a corner where Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories meet, farmers have been working together using barn owls for more than 10 years. There are more than 24,700 acres (almost 10,000 hectares) where for years no pesticides have been needed because of the owls. No poisons!”
“Really?” Dad stepped closer to the computer and peered at the screen.
Iris jumped off her chair and pushed it toward her father. “Sit!”
“Philippa,” Dad called, “Come see this!”
“I thought you were sending Iris to bed,” Mom said as she approached the bedroom.
“I was, but this is more important. We might even be able to make your dream of an organic farm come true. Robin, you did great finding this!”
“It wasn’t me!” Robin put his arm around Iris’s shoulder. “It was my bookworm sister. She read it in that science magazine she borrowed from school.”
Dad and Mom stared at Iris. “You read about this?”
“Uh-huh,” said Iris. “I tried to tell you.”
“I owe you an apology,” said Dad, hugging her. “I thought you were just wasting time reading silly stories. I had no idea those magazines you like have real information! You’re learning things that are practical and a help for all of us.”
“I agree,” said Mom, looking up from the computer. “As long as you keep getting your chores done, I’ll stop nagging you to put down the books and magazines.”
“We’ll need to use pesticides now,” said Dad, “because if we don’t do something immediately we’ll lose our crop. But by next year we can have nest boxes up. We’ll be on the way to having a real organic farm. Now, turn off the computer. We’ll read more about this tomorrow and then get started.”
“It’s really late,” said Mom. “But this calls for a celebration. How does some hot chocolate sound?”
As Iris held her steaming, chocolaty drink, she couldn’t stop smiling. Tonight she wasn’t Squirt or Bookworm. She was Iris, the proud daughter of farmers, and she was helping her family help save the planet.
For Parents, Teachers and Others
I wrote this story for the annual “Science-Me A Story” contest sponsored by the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK). This story was awarded 3rd place in the fourth edition (2021). The winning stories, all translated so they are in both Spanish and English, are posted on SRUK’s website for a year. The stories for the first three years are available free on their website; the next collection, which will include this story, will be posted this year.
Since I wrote this for a British contest, I used names for the characters that are more common in the United Kingdom than in the USA.
Next week I will be posting another story I wrote about barn owls: a short nonfiction article about the Israeli barn owl project that is the basis for the story Iris found in her magazine. However, that story has not been published before.
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Motti Charter of the University of Haifa, whose dedication to children and the environment, as well as his willingness to answer my many questions, led to these stories. Truly, they would not have been written without his help and inspiration.
If you like this story, you might enjoy watching birds whose activities are caught via webcams and posted through the Charter Group Birdcams group. Some of the videos are live (in real time), which means you’ll only have action when the birds are at their nesting sites. The webcams are posted from sites around the world and feature many types of birds, not just barn owls.
Interesting Websites
Questions to Discuss
What were Iris’s problems?
She wasn’t taken seriously by her family
The family didn’t think reading was important, but Iris loved to read and learn
The family didn’t have money for her dental work because there were pests in the farm and they needed to buy more pesticide to save their crops
Do you think her family was able to resolve the pest problem through owls? Why or why not?
Maybe not:
They might not have followed through on the plan to build and put up owl houses
The parents might have changed their mind and decided to keep with what they knew
They might put up a nesting box, but no barn owls might settle in it
Yes:
Owl houses would probably not cost a lot to build and might make a big difference to their crops
They wanted to have an organic farm, which means one where pesticides are not used. This gave them a way to start
Maybe after having success with this project they will start to read other things and get more ideas on how to reach their dreams
This is a story. Does building and putting up bird houses sound like a way to solve a pest problem in real life?
No. It sounds crazy and maybe the magazine story was just propaganda.
No. Like so many ideas, it sounds good on paper but doesn’t really work.
Yes. The magazine story Iris read says it has worked in some places for more than ten years.
I bet the websites can give us more information so we can find out for sure.
I don’t know, but it sure would be great if birds could be used instead of poisons.