Talon show is a magical display
A frosty embankment teetering inches above sea level seems an unlikely place to compare with the Gothic splendour of Harry Potter’s famous wizarding school.
But if you can survive in the biting cold long enough to look out over the Cambridgeshire Fens, you will behold something more magical than the morning postal delivery at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Devotees of JK Rowling’s series will know all about the way Hogwarts students have pet owls, which ferry messages to and from friends and family.
And at the RSPB’s Nene Washes reserve that lies on the outskirts of Peterborough, birdwatchers are currently being enchanted by undoubtedly the best place for an owl prowl in the country.
Four of the five regularly breeding species of British owl can be seen hunkered down in daytime roosts or hunting over the marshy grasslands that skirt the River Nene. I needed no better reason to join the throng than for a chance to gaze into the all-knowing eyes of these magical creatures.
To the soundtrack of distant wild swans and cranes bugling their presence, the first target species to be encountered was a longeared owl, beautifully camouflaged to resemble a tree stump in its daytime roost of tangled briars.
Less than 100 yards along the bank, a stand of alder trees hosted another nighthunter. Sharp-eyed birdwatchers had located a tawny owl peering out from inside a snapped branch, oblivious to the bright sunshine and clicking cameras.
Advancing dusk and salmon pink skies across the western horizon enticed a ghostly barn owl to venture out. Its phantom flight path crossed more impenetrable scrub, where a short-eared owl in shades of cafe au lait began stirring before its own night hunt for unwary voles.
Wild food abounds on the flood washes, not only sustenance for owls, but also a host of ravenous daytime raptors in the shape of red kites, buzzards, hen and marsh harriers, sparrowhawks, kestrels, merlins and peregrine falcons.
All in all, it’s simply spellbinding.
Four of the five British owl species could be seen by the River Nene