Tawny Owl, Strix aluco, 'Portrait on a post’...The Silent Hunter.

            'Portrait on a post’...The Silent Hunter.
The night’s work begins as dusk is setting for our most common Owl here in the UK...The Tawny Owl, Strix Aluso our silent woodland hunter. 
The Tawny Owl is the most common of the five resident Owl species in the UK and British Isles, with roughly 50,000 breeding pairs. Like the Barn Owl, Short-eared Owl and Long-eared Owls, it is a native species (unlike the Little Owl, which was introduced in the 1800s.

I have childhood memories of me and my Father raising an injured Tawny Owl fledgling and bringing it back to health, then releasing it back into the wild.

Many thanks for visiting my Flickr pages...Your visits, interest, comments and kindness to 'fave' my photos is very much appreciated, Steve.

Tawny Owl Notes and information:

Though our most familiar and widespread owl, it is strictly nocturnal and rarely seen during the day unless disturbed.

The typical nest site of a Tawny Owl is a tree hollow, wherein the Owls will nest directly on the interior hole's surface. Tree hollows used may be as much as 25 m (82 ft) above the ground, but are usually within about 12 m (39 ft) off the ground.

The hooting of a male Tawny Owl is frequently used in TV and radio programmes and films to capture the essence of night. It is often misused in Irish dramas: Tawny Owls have never occurred in Ireland.

Because they don’t like flying over water they are also absent from many of our islands, including the Isles of Man and Wight, as well as the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.

Only the male Owl utters the familiar drawn-out hoot: both males and female also make the well-known kewick call.

Male Tawny Owls will occasionally hoot during the middle of the day.

It is relatively easy to imitate a Tawny Owl by blowing through cupped hands. A study found that more than 90% of male owls can be duped into responding.

Concern about our Tawny Owl population prompted the BTO to undertake a recent survey. It revealed that numbers were stable.

Owls are often credit with great intelligence: this is a fallacy. There are many superstitions surrounding Owls.

The hooting of an Owl was often thought to be an omen of death.

Hill Hooter and Screech Owl are both old names for the Tawny. Several names are a reminder of its daytime roosts: Wood Owl, Beech Owl and Ivy Owl.

The pioneer bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye to a Tawny Owl while trying to photograph it. His biography was aptly titled An eye for a bird.

Tawny Owls are famous for the fierce defence of their young: bird ringers usually wear crash helmets with visors to protect themselves when ringing baby Tawnies.

Tawnies are specially adapted for hunting in woodland, for their short wings give them great manoeuvrability.

Like almost all Owls, the wings of a Tawny Owl are completely silent.

Though small mammals are their favoured prey, an amazing variety of prey has been recorded in the Tawny Owl’s diet, ranging from small fish and lizards to bats and hawkmoths.

Among the unlikely birds noted as prey are adult Mallard and Kittiwake.

The average distance ringed tawny owls have flown between being ringed and being recovered is 1km.

Adult Tawnies drive their youngsters out of their territories after the breeding season. As a result, nearly two-thirds of youngsters die in their first year.

They like to nest in holes in trees, but will readily adopt nest boxes.

Few birds are harder to census than these, so estimates of the British population are really only educated guesses. It is thought that the British population is roughly around 50,000 breeding pairs.

Taken on: May 6, 2023

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