Barn Owl, Ribchester, March 2021
THE RAIN IS HAMMERING ON MY WINDOW AGAIN this evening as normal service is resumed in East Lancs. A series of depressions is on its way across the Atlantic that are going to lash us with rain for the next few days. There’s a yellow wind warning too of gusts of up to 55mph. This has rather stopped my only enjoyment at the moment, birding walks, in its tracks and it looks like there will not be a decent day until next week. Although this is going to make me even more depressed than I already am it’s nothing compared to what our poor local Barn Owls will have to endure. At least I’ve got plenty of food and stuff to do indoors. Hunting is going to be very difficult for the owls over the next few days, for birds that rely so heavily on their hearing to catch mice and voles. That’s without the ever increasing acres of #greenconcrete with nothing living in it, cut right up to the bonsai-ed hedgerows. Despite all this we are still lucky to have Barn Owls around the village and presumably they will sit out the bad weather until it passes. Top tip, after a period of rain they will be hungry as hell, so Tuesday is looking particularly good with some sunshine, for them to be out hunting in daylight in the early evening. Pick your spot and wait for them to fly past on their terms, don’t go chasing them around.
A Barn Owl passes across the dark shadows of a wood in the evening sunhine