ralph
Old Hand
From Daily Mail, 20 November 2002, and Fortean Times February 2003. Please see attachment for picture relating to the following story:
"Sadly, the sight of a ghostly white barn owl on the wing in Britain's countryside, seeking mice or other small prey, is not so common nowadays as it once was. But it is still a lot more so than the sight of a deep brown Barn Owl - on the wing or otherwise - which is why Sooty (pictured right in attachment, with non-melanistic sister) is making such a sweep in the popularity stakes at the New Forest Owl Sanctuary in Ringwood, Hampshire, where he hatched in August 2002. An example of melanism (displaying an abnormal abundance of dark pigment), Sooty may well be the first melanistic Barn Owl to be born in Britain for a century, and the chances of him being born at all are 100,000 to one!"
"Sadly, the sight of a ghostly white barn owl on the wing in Britain's countryside, seeking mice or other small prey, is not so common nowadays as it once was. But it is still a lot more so than the sight of a deep brown Barn Owl - on the wing or otherwise - which is why Sooty (pictured right in attachment, with non-melanistic sister) is making such a sweep in the popularity stakes at the New Forest Owl Sanctuary in Ringwood, Hampshire, where he hatched in August 2002. An example of melanism (displaying an abnormal abundance of dark pigment), Sooty may well be the first melanistic Barn Owl to be born in Britain for a century, and the chances of him being born at all are 100,000 to one!"