Local Wildlife

As I was returning home the other night at about 1900, after having delivered another delicious hot meal from the Lord Combermere to a client on the Norton in Hales border, and driving along in the dark of the very cold night.

Not a light shining anywhere. Twisting road ,with splashes of standing rain water . And then as drove along, a ghostly shape low over my vision , about 15 feet in the air. A magnificent huge barn owl , out on the hunt. A magical sight, and it set me wondering on two counts. How many of these superb creatures still inhabit our lanes and woods -- and then , thinking of the masses who have never and probably never will experience such.

We here are doing all we can to encourage barn owls to nest and the ecology group here have many plans to place owl boxes in as many places as possible .

Then I hear a piece on BBC radio 4 as to the fact that the population is in fact increasing. Such good news in all this gloom of Covid life.

How lovely it is to live hereabouts, and how lucky we were to find Audlem by a stroke of luck all those years ago .

Ralph Warburton