If I Were a Mouse...

...I’d beware of these little chaps. These small owls are, however, not only into rodents, but lizards, large invertebrates like beetles, and small birds too.

The most visible – and partially diurnal – of the smaller owls is the Little Owl, (Mochuelo in Castellano) found throughout Spain.

If you want to see one for sure, go out onto the plains – the sort of place you’d go to look for bustards and sandgrouse and the like, and see that, over the years (centuries?) farmers have cleared stones from the paths of their ploughs and built them into piles.

You won’t have to look at many before you see the familiar shape of a Little Owl perched on top, looking out for his prey. But they are also quite happy to nest in holes in gnarled old olive or other trees. Incidentally, although

Little Owls are found in Britain, they are not native there. Non-migrants, they were apparently introduced, originally, by Lord Lilford, sometime in the nineteenth century, whereupon they spread rather more quickly than expected, the ferocious little chaps having developed a liking for a juicy Mistle Thrush.

More recently agricultural changes have checked their advance, and they are now rather more scarce in England than they used to be. They never made it to Scot- land, nor has there been any record, so far as I am aware, in Ireland.

In the Alps, the little Owl’s place is taken by the tiny Pygmy Owl, which also breeds in much of Scandinavia. Not much bigger than a sparrow, its German name is, in fact Sperlingskauz, - ‘Sparrow owl.’ I aim to deal with other species of owl in a future article.