Out & About Summer 2021

LOCAL VIEW

JONATHAN HOPSON sings the praises of owls after some up-close sightings

T hanks to my sister-in-law, we were fortunate to be involved in a close-up viewing of a pair of barn owl chicks, which were being ringed and carefully checked over by an authorised monitor from the Barn Owl Trust before being returned to their nest high up in some redundant farm buildings. The owlets were around two weeks old and had been well fed by their parents, although barn owls generally have not had a good time of late as they are unable to fly and hunt in wet weather, due to their soft feathers not being waterproof. With the prolonged spate of windy and wet weather during April and May, many barn owl pairs have struggled to feed their offspring. Leaving my sister-in-law’s home in the Pewsey vale late in the afternoon, we were fortunate to see a pair of barn owls setting off for an early evening hunting trip. Although the light was fading, we could clearly see the owls’ ghostly outlines and almost ponderously slow wingbeat as they quartered along the outer margin of a nearby grassy field in search of prey. Barn owl flight feathers have small serrations on their leading edge and a hairlike fringe on their trailing edge, which help to break up the flow of air over the wings, reducing turbulence improve the detection and ability to pinpoint the direction of any sound, maximising the chance of accurately detecting mice and vole movement on the ground. From early May onwards we had often heard the same strange bird sound around 10pm. The sound was vaguely similar to the drumming of a snipe or perhaps the mechanical whirring of a nightjar and it proved difficult to conclusively identify. After some research and with the help and any accompanying sound. Asymmetrically situated ears

Barn owl chick monitored by a member of the Barn Owl Trust

O&A SUMMER 2021 To find out more about the Barn Owl Trust visit www.barnowltrust.org.uk 7 the more commonly heard “tu-whit, tu-whoo” – a good example of a tawny owl’s love call can be found at https:// youtu.be/vXq8JoYTGiY Our tawny owl experience continued a few days later when the urgent, high pitched alarm call of a blackbird signalled the presence of a tawny owl, perched high up in a neighbour’s redwood tree. Despite frequent mobbing by blackbirds and other smaller birds, this particularly tawny owl remained largely unruffled, seemingly resting with one eye closed while keeping the other eye open, alert for any sign of trouble

Tawny owl keeping a watchful eye on proceedings

of bird song identification software, we finally realised the sound was the love call of a tawny owl. It is usually the male that makes a soft reverberating hoot, known as an ocarina call, in his search for a mate. This is a very different sound from