Owl Update...

Having arrived home from Texas about 9.30 a.m. on Saturday my day was mapped out for me....cut the grass was a priority - we had visitors coming on Sunday. It's all good practice for when Mrs. H. gets things to the point when we can open the garden under the 'yellow book' scheme! There was also some writing to be done and so by the time bed beckoned I was ready for it. I'd just dropped off to sleep when suddenly Mrs H. leapt from the marital bed. "There's an owl on the ground we'll have to go and get it put back." I was barely compass. "What do you mean we?" "We, as in you and I darling one." So there I was with a jumper over my jim jams, my Ug boots, a ladder under my arm, following Mrs H up the bank to the tree where the owl box is located. She scurried around and found the owlet under the Laural bush - while I held the ladder steady, she popped it back up on the platform. Mission accomplished.

In answer to one of the earlier comments; the reason we put them back is, according to the Barn Owl Trust, that if they are on the ground and there's still one or more being fed in the nest then the adult owls will not feed the one on the ground. 

Last night it looks like the second of the remaining three was flying around, which leaves just one to go. Bedtime will not be the same, no more Mrs H. announcing, "I can hear them hissing." and "It's OK, they're quiet now they must have had a mouse." I should add that we've now got mouse traps set in the outbuildings and so far have managed to feed them a dead one. I say we, I'm just the assistant in all this....