Owls in the woods.

It is not often that you hear owls in the woods. Yesterday, I went for a woodland wander. I went off the beaten track for a while and got, some would say, slightly lost. I was really surprised by how quickly the light level dropped. The wood was some distance from a built up area, and as a result, little light pollution, so it got dark really quickly. Luckily, I had taken a torch with me (always useful for lighting up photos). The sections which had fir trees in got dark the first. I knew that I had to get back to a main track somehow, and quickly. It was when the light level had dropped to needing a torch, that I first heard them.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of the owls last night, even though there was still some light, I just heard their calls. There appeared to be several, as their calls were coming from both sides of the track. It was as thought they were having an early evening conversation with each other about the adventures that they were going to have later on. With the low light levels; the dropping air temperature; and the owl calls, it was making for quite a spooky atmosphere.

The Barn Owl Trust website has lots of information regarding owls, their appearance and identifying noises. This makes for an interesting read. I think that it was a several Tawny Owls that I heard because their “hoohoos’ sounded like the ones from the website link. I really enjoyed listening to them out in the wild. It was quite nice to think that there was some other creature out there keeping me company, because the world can suddenly become a scary place…

The Barn Owl Trust website link