How Now, Brown Owl! (1 Viewer)

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!"

Good for Sooty, he looks a real cutie. I think I prefer him to the normal colouration.

Barn Owls are one of my all time favorites, next to Snowy Owls. I doubt I'll ever see one except in a picture so thanks! I know I'll never see one like Sooty so that's a special treat. I dearly love and am facsinated by owls but seldom get to see them.

How amazing.
I seem to think that I sometimes see a barn owl, driving back late at night. Can not be sure as it is just a whitish shape flying across the road.
I only ever saw one 'quartering' low over a field in Scotland. Marvellous sight.
Paula

Tammie & Paula,
Where I live, in Norfolk (UK), there are many Barn Owls. I've seen them well within 20 miles of here, and last September, while I was walking the five miles home from the nearest railway station, I heard two screeching, in the fields on each side of the lane I was on. It was too dark to see them that night, but if we get another cold snap I intend to be out at dusk, waiting ...

Tony

T0ny, I wish I could go with you! That's a long walk from here though...

How wonderful TOny,
Why do you think that the barn owl is relatively succesful around your area and not here in Devon?
Food, nesting places?

Food, I would think mainly, Paula - it's cereal farming country, which means lots of rodents (don't tell David Attenborough !). The problem with that is, if farmers decide to poison their rats, then the poison gets into the food chain, which is bad news for the owls.

Tony