Did you see Animal Hospital with Rolf Harris on BBC1 the other night, when one of the creatures dealt with was a barn owl, a young one, found near death from dehydration and starvation? Not much hope for its recovery was given by the vet, but it did survive and thrive, even. This, it seems was a tame owl that had escaped, for, hard as it is to believe, the Field, a knowledgeable journal, had an article a year or so ago telling us that while barn owls in the wild in Britain have dropped to not much more than 3,000 in number, there are no fewer than 25,000 in captivity. The article quotes a former Director of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland as recommending a pet-lover to get a pair of barn owls.
The Field's view is that the best way to preserve the species is to support wild pairs. Some lovers of these birds have started by acquiring a pair of hand-reared, tame birds and, by giving them suitable quarters - in a barn or attic, say - in the country, of course, and by feeding them with the right food at the right time, encouraging them to breed in the hope that their young may take off on their own to help check the general decline. The Field writer quotes a farmer, who must breed a lot of chickens, as feeding dead chicks to the owls. Others, in similar circumstances, can buy dead chicks, and also may use liver when short. Food must be regular.
A comprehensive book on owls of many varieties, their habits, history and superstitions about them, was published by David and Charles in 1970. The authors are John Sparks and Tony Soper. It also includes instructions about nest-boxes and general care of barn owls in particular. A man who has spent a lifetime moving around the country, often at night, usually angling, sometimes just rambling or working at his trees, still can count only rare encounters with this bird, but numbers them as among the most fascinating of all: the huge wings, white from below, the pale moon-face, the silence of its movements. Probably the source of many a ghost story. Once he came face to face on a cliff-top with this white face, and the bird just looked for a few seconds and with no haste dropped out of sight. James Fairley in his An Irish Beast Book writes that "the owl's enormous lenses result in the eyes being fixed almost immovably in their sockets, but this is compensated for by the extraordinary mobility and rapid reflex action of the neck, which allows the head to swivel to practically any position in an instant. An owl enjoys all-round vision, for it can turn its head through nearly 180 degrees on each side". Y