Country mouse on owls
Owls are a boon to country dwellers, finds Mark, who has observed large numbers of owls around his new house


We have a tawny owl that sleeps in the dense ivy that has wrapped itself around a hawthorn tree. I only discovered its presence when I watched some jackdaws making a racket as they mobbed the tree. The tawny owl seemed barely interested in its intruders. Better still, there was a barn owl perched on the fence post as we drove home late one night. Barn owls, however, are not for the superstitious. Their calling, a blood-curdling screech, is supposed to foretell death and its presence at the time of childbirth is a curse. When Richard of Gloucester prepares to stab Henry VI in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, he is warned: ‘ The owl shriek'd at thy birth- an evil sign'. As Richard III, he became our most notorious king.
But the white owl coursing a field is a sight to treasure. Few avian spectacles give me a greater thrill. Later, I began to wonder why we had owls in Harry Potter numbers living around our house and barns. The answer came when our car went for a service - rodents had chewed through some of the wires under the bonnet. The owls have come to rid us of the rats.
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Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
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