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Living World

Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

The Living World

Getting up close and personal with wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Intimate encounters and extraordinary observations of wild nature in Britain and beyond.

Living World: Little Owls

19/08/2012

Little Owls

BBC Radio 4 - Living World, Little Owls

Miranda Krestovnikoff tracks down Britain's smallest resident owl in a Wiltshire village.

Miranda Krestovnikoff goes in search of the little owl, a bird that was introduced in the late 19th century and has since spread throughout England and Wales.

The little owl is not only our smallest breeding owl, but is also our only introduced one. Little owls, which aren't much bigger than a mistle thrush, were introduced to the UK from Continental Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Since then they have prospered and unlike many introduced species, have been generally welcomed.

For Living World, Miranda Krestovnikoff visits a Wiltshire village which is home to a thriving population of the owls. This is the study area of Emily Joachim, a Ph.D student at the University of Reading who for four years has been following the breeding success of little owls in nest-boxes around an equestrian centre. The boxes, some of which are converted army ammunition boxes, allow her access to the owl chicks and to monitor how the birds are faring from season to season. This is important because she and other ornithologists suspect that little owls are declining in parts of England and Wales, and the reasons for this are not clear. While Emily's study can't produce easy answers, it is showing what the owls eat, and how they cope with variations in climate.For example, one study pair raised a record five chicks even in this recent damp spring, showing that they are robust and capable of adapting to the worst English summer for some time.

Together Miranda and Emily have intriguing glimpses of the owls and hear their distinctive call as dusk falls. Emily also has good advice for anyone with little owls on their land and who wants to keep them there.

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