Speaker Howard Toll - Owls and Birds of Prey.

Howard told us that he had beeb brought up on a farm where he had always been interested in the natural world. He started with Birds of Prey with a baby Tawny Owl.This lived to 23 years old - it would probably only have lived to 12 to 14 in the wild.

Normaly a baby owl watches its parents to learn how to hunt and feed. They are frequently seen on the ground as they wander about following their parents. Do not pick them up - they will probably be OK - more harm is done to them by doing so as they will then not reconnect with their parents.

Of all the owl eggs laid only 50% to 75% hatch and only 10% survive to become adults. The reason for this is that nearly everything they eat either migrates or hibernates so winter is a particularly tough time for owls.

Owls split into 2 groups True Owls (Strigidae) and Barn Owls (Tytonidae). Although the True Owls are viewed as being nocturnal they actually do most of their hunting at twilight and dawn. They see in low light 100 times better than us but they see only in black and white.

The barn-owls' main characteristic is the heart-shaped facial disc formed by stiff feathers which serve to amplify and locate the source of sounds when hunting.

The Tawny Owl like all owls can rotate its head through 270 degrees so it can see behind itself and also has a vision overlap of 30% to 50%. Also it's right ear is bigger and higher on its head than its left ear so that it can better judge the location of its prey than other raptors.