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Little owls at home |
5.4.2003 |
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Michael Woods |
There has been great excitement in the
garden with the appearance of a pair of little owls. For
several days they put in a regular appearance, even in broad
daylight. On one occasion I watched them preening each other
in the midday sun. There were signs that they were
house-hunting. One would fly from perch to perch and look
keenly at nooks and crannies and once I saw it peering from
the nestbox which I hope the stock doves will use. So I
quickly made a special little owl nestbox according to the
Hawk and Owl Trust's design and hung it as high as my fear
of heights would allow. (See their booklet in www.hawkandowl.org)
Within a few hours, I saw an owl enter
the box, but there has been no activity since. There is
still time for the owls to take up the option on the nestbox
and start a family in it. It would be wonderful to have
these charming little birds as neighbours. I particularly
like the way that they run along branches, like balls on
feathers on legs.
The little owl must be one of the few
introduced predatory species that has not become a pest. A
native of continental Europe, numerous releases were made in
southern England in the late 19th Century and
little owls are now found through much of England and Wales,
with a few in southern Scotland. There were once persecuted
by gamekeepers but a study of the diet in the 1930s showed
that the preferred prey is small mammals and large insects,
and earthworms. The small amount of birds captured are
mainly starlings, sparrows and blackbirds and very few
gamebird or poultry chicks have been recorded.
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