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In the church tower of Mottgers, kestrels and barn owls now find custom-made breeding boxes above the church bells. Dedicated conservationists have accomplished this.
Sinntal – The intense dirt from feral domestic pigeons was the reason why the Mottgers church tower was barred from the inside several years ago. This meant that classic tower breeders and cultural followers, barn owls and kestrels, also lost an important breeding site in the Sinntal.
These church tower grills were common throughout Hesse in the post-war period and once brought the barn owl to the brink of extinction due to a lack of breeding space. When the population was first systematically recorded in what is now the Main-Kinzig district in the 1970s, only fewer than ten breeding pairs were counted.
Conservationists are creating new breeding quarters in Mottger's church tower
Two new breeding quarters for the barn owl with the heart-shaped “face veil” and for the diurnal kestrel were created in the Mottgers church tower. This was initiated on the initiative of ARGE Mottgers in good time before the start of this year's breeding season. The name ARGE stands for the values of the association – active, regional, shared, genuine. The event was organized by Dr. Dirk Höpfner from Schlüchtern. Werner Peter from “Pro Artenschutz MKK” reports this in a press release.
Since the large breeding boxes were installed directly behind the sound boards on the bell level, contamination by pigeons inside the tower will be ruled out in the future. Pastor Stephan Gleim and the board of the Protestant parish were very open to the planned species protection issue and immediately gave their approval.
The species protection campaign was optimally prepared by Fabian Müller's local carpentry shop. Because of the limited space in the tower and on the bell level, it was not possible to install finished boxes. Instead, the kits had to be brought to the church tower in individual parts and assembled there. The “plug-in principle” recommended by Müller has proven to be effective here.
Fortunately, the Müller company also took over the complete financing of the not inconsiderable material and manufacturing costs, for which the Pro Artenschutz MKK nature conservation team, which is involved in tower breeding protection across the district, recognized him. The team has never received such a generous donation and support for the implementation of a species protection project in the local church tower in any other place in the Main-Kinzig district during its many years of voluntary tower breeding protection work.
The breeding boxes were assembled by the experienced two volunteer regional nature conservation activists Dirk Höpfner and Erich Müller. They were spontaneously supported by the Mottgers sexton Bernd Eyring.
Since a kestrel was found on the outer facade of the church tower during the first exploration tour for assembly in mid-February, it was probably already looking for a breeding place. The species conservationists from the Bergwinkel are therefore very optimistic that at least the kestrel will adopt one of the newly created breeding sites as a breeding base this year.
In the neighboring Weichersbach church tower, the two breeding boxes installed by Pro Artenschutz MKK were used for years at the same time by kestrels and barn owls to raise their young. Both barn owls and kestrels feed almost exclusively on mice and thus contribute significantly to reducing the local small mammal population. The new church tower tenants in Mottgers will certainly soon make this contribution. (ug)
Conservationists are also campaigning for endangered bird species elsewhere in the region: in the neighboring district of Fulda, for example Experts systematically recorded breeding sites during the 2025 mapping seasonto document the inventory.
