Barn Owl heading home for dinner

In December 2010 I completed my long-cherished dream to move out of the city and back to the countryside where I grew up. This promised to give me lots of opportunities to explore the local Hampshire countryside and wildlife.

I was astonished to find I didn’t have far to go. The day I moved in I noticed a barn owl hunting in the field in front of the house and was thrilled by this daily occurence at dawn and dusk.

This was a successful evening hunt as you can see despite the fact that the owl had to put up with being harassed by crows several times. As he headed home to the family with dinner, I was able to retreat from the cold into the cottage and start thinking about mine!

I feel incredibly fortunate to have witnessed this within 200 yards of my home but unfortunately there is a sad postscript to this story. The early winter of 2010-11 was unusually harsh in southern England and around the end of January sightings of my barn owl neighbour dried up and he’d clearly perished. I remain hopeful that a new barn owl family will discover the abandoned farm buildings near me and set up home, but sadly they remain in decline in the UK.