Telltale signs of predating tawny owls

Regarding alex Keeble’s thoughts on whether tawny owls kill pheasant poults (Gamekeeper, 5 September), from my own experience — having been a headkeeper over many decades before retiring — I can assure him they do. On one estate — Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire — we would lose a few poults every year to tawnies. That continued throughout the 1970s, as it did on other estates.

The killings usually started two or three days after we released our six- to sevenweek-old poults. Then the tawny owl would probably spend a few days perched in, or overlooking, the release pen before the temptation would become too great.

The telltale signs of a tawny is that the head has been taken but the rest of the poult is generally left untouched. It is always worth examining the body for puncture marks, made by the bird’s talons, but the head is never found — having been swallowed. This is no problem for an adult tawny owl. as far as I know, the tawny is the only raptor that leaves its kill, apart from the head, untouched. It is a mysterious bird of the shadows, a silent killer of the woodland and a proficient one.

T. Todd-smith, Kent

Tawny owls will succumb to temptation after watching the poults for a few days