BARN owl numbers around York may drop after last year's flooding damaged their habitats.

Conservation workers have found that owl nesting boxes along the Ouse, Derwent and Humber contain far fewer fledglings than usual and in some cases there have been none at all.

The boxes, on poles along the river's more remote parts and in trees next to farmland, were checked three weeks ago by Colin Shawyer, director of the Hawk and Owl trust.

"It is the worst year since I started monitoring boxes 20 years ago," he said.

"The small mammals on which the birds feed have been drowned during the prolonged flooding and we are now seeing the effects further up the food chain."

There have also been reports of adult owls dying, possibly because of a lack of food.

Barn owls do not like nesting on high ground, which makes them especially vulnerable.

"We have a lot of conservation going on around Yorkshire and York in particular as the birds like to use the riverside sites," said Mr Shawyer.

"Animals are quite resilient to change, flooding and so on, but this has been such a dramatic event it will be a few years before they recover."

Updated: 09:49 Saturday, August 25, 2001