The MMA Barn Owl Program
A unique Nantucket experience!
Did you know you can have an active role in helping the MMA monitor and protect the island's Barn Owl population?
Barn Owls began breeding on Nantucket in 1968. These birds do not like very cold weather and prior to 2002, the population was only about 15 to 20 pairs. During the severe winters of 2002 and 2003, however, the population crashed to a low of only one known owl in 2005. In 2006, we knew of one successful nest and the population has been increasing since then, helped perhaps by the construction of many nesting boxes.
Through our Barn Owl Sponsorship Program, you can purchase a nest box for your property, which will be installed by our team and monitored.
How to Get Involved
Step 1 – Purchase and install a Barn Owl nest box. If you wish to purchase a new box or replace an old dilapidated one, please contact Jonelle Gurley, at
jgurley@mariamitchell.org and he will arrange to have a new Barn Owl nest box built and installed for you. There is a one-time fee of $2,000 for the construction and installation of each nest box.
Step 2 – Pay an annual $350 donation to have your sponsored box monitored. Our 2024
sponsorship form can be downloaded and returned via mail, or you can elect to complete our online payment form
here. Forms and dues can be submitted via mail to:
Maria Mitchell Association
Attn: Jonelle Gurley
4 Vestal Street
Nantucket, MA 02554
Barn Owl Program Team
Dr. Bob Kennedy
†, Senior Research Fellow
Ginger Andrews, MMA Field Ornithologist
Mitch Blake, MMA Volunteer
Kim and Tom Griswold, MMA Volunteer
Jonelle Gurley, MMA Science and Programs Director
A special thank you to our Barn Owl business partner:
Program Goals
- To monitor the population of Barn Owls on Nantucket to understand their abundance, reproduction, distribution and dispersal and how weather impacts these variables.
- To support the Maria Mitchell Association through an active research program that actually provides income to cover the project cost and to contribute to the general operating expenses of the organization.
- To provide research experiences to MMA Natural Science interns and unique experiences to other MMA interns and staff.
- To educate our sponsors and the public about Barn Owls and their benefits to controlling rodent populations, thus reducing the impact of Lyme Disease on Nantucket.
We accomplish these goals through an annual donation of $350 for each nest box a donor wants to sponsor.
Program Benefits
- Monitor the nest boxes once or twice in the Spring/early Summer and once in the Fall each year to record nesting success and to band the young and unbanded adults when conditions warrant safe capture.
- Clean the nest boxes, if necessary.
- Perform minor repairs to the sponsored nest boxes.
- Provide a general report of each survey and notify each sponsor of what we found in their sponsored nest boxes.
- Maintain correspondence with the sponsors if they have questions or need information about their nest boxes, Barn Owls, or birds in general.
- Allow sponsors and their families and friends to be present when we check the nest boxes and handle the adults and young. This is fairly unique among research projects as most researchers do not allow the public to be present during their research activities.
Barn Owl Program - At a Glance
72
boxes monitored by MMA
14
Boxes with activity
in fall of 2024
9
Boxes with eggs in fall of 2024
24
year of mma barn owl program