The sight of a large Brown Owl sitting on top of the hedge at the bottom of my garden set me off thinking about the owl populations in Britain. I had never seen the bird before although they do tend to be territorial. However, I assume that it was looking for water and food. The ground is frozen solid and has been for over ten days now and it isn't something we would expect here in the Eden Valley.
Image via Wikipedia Tawny Owl Chicks
Image via Wikipedia Long-eared Owl
Image via Wikipedia Snowy Owl
I broke the ice on the bird bath and scattered some bread, nuts, wild bird seed, apples and bacon fat and I hope the owl eats. I stood for a while but it just stared at me, so I decided to come inside. At present there seems to be a lot of tweeting, bickering, and pushing among the little birds as they try to get a share of the breakfast I provided.
There are seven different kinds of owl found in UK. The barn own with its white face is often seen flying across roads in country areas in the light of car headlights, is probably the most familiar.
The Eagle Owl is now quite rare and is sometimes seen on the North York Moors. This is the largest owl found in UK but it is thought that the small population of wild eagle owls grew from birds that had escaped from captivity. The wild populations in Europe are much larger but experts do no think that these owls have migrated into Britain.
A small population of Little Owls exists in Britain and this group grew from 18 individuals that were released into the wild in 1888.
The long-eared owl is not very common and can be recognised by its deep orange eyes which are often the first thing to be noticed when they are sitting still in the dark. Short-eared owls have yellow eyes and are often seen hunting during the day time.
The Snowy Owl is the largest owl in the world it used to breed in the Shetland Islands but since 1965 has become just a rare winter visitor to the Northern Isles.
The Tawny Owl is also known as the Brown Owl and is often seen in all areas of mainland Britain, however it is not found in Northern Ireland.
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