Читать книгу The Times A Year in Nature Notes - Derwent May - Страница 48

LONG-EARED OWLS are mysterious birds that are found in most parts of Britain but are rarely seen. They normally come out at night, and during the day sit in the depths of bushes and trees. They can sometimes be detected looking out from these roosts with their cat-like faces. They stare at one with orange eyes, and if they are alarmed they raise their long ear-tufts. Even when the bushes are bare, the streaky brown body of these owls blends with the twigs and helps to camouflage them. At this time of the year they are most often found near the sea, where there may be several of them roosting in a single large bush.

Short-eared owls have relatively unnoticeable ear-tufts. They hunt over marshes and lonely farmland for mice and voles, and are often out and about in daytime. They wheel round in the air, then flap and glide, with wings held in a V shape, just above the grass. They will take a small bird if they can. They sometimes come down to earth and crouch low. In summer they nest chiefly on moorland. There are more of them around in winter, since we often have large numbers of visitors from the continent.