Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

ONE of the joys of early spring is the weird whoop of the little owl. As soon as the days began to lengthen in the first week of the new year I heard it, half a mile away in the pasture where the horses live.

The little owl lives in the walnut tree and eats the beetles in the dung. Sussex people were amazed by this sprightly little fellow which they knew to be a foreigner. But from where? They called it every name under the sun as a result.

Belgian, Dutch, French, Spanish, and even Indian owls the little owl became in Victorian days. In fact they had been imported as curiosities and allowed to escape.

Five were released in Yorkshire in 1842 but they died out. Forty were let go into the Kent countryside in 1874-80 with some success.

Sussex received its quota in 1870 but they did not seem to take. Lord Lilford introduced little owls, which had been caught in Holland, onto his estate at Oundle in Northamptonshire in 1890 and they began to spread.

For full feature see Wesy Sussex Gazette January 30