Owls on social media and in real life

"I love owls!" -you've heard it a thousand times. But some people don't, and many cultures hold owls to be harbingers of doom or similar. I won't dwell on that, but I think others dislike owls too - the AI brigade. How can you transform a beautiful bird from its natural plumage to some garish multicoloured effigy, and then post it in a so-called owl lovers group? The same applies to other species, but owls seem to be particular targets. I wouldn't want to stop anyone doing what they wish to do, and thankfully, I have found a group which specifically bans any artificially created images. I know I'm getting on a bit, but I'm sure I get more pleasure and sense of satisfaction from painting or photographing owls.

When I started birding if you wanted to see an owl you had to find it yourself, or find someone who would show you one. One of the last regular British birds I saw was Long-eared owl, but things are obviously very different now, summed up by less owls, more people. However I'm not sure about the owls. I went to see the dark-breasted Barn Owl near home the other day, and saw at least five other Barn Owls within a couple of miles. Last year I didn't see a Barn, although birding stopped in September due to a fire at home. Going back, I used to see Barn Owls fairly often whilst travelling in the early morning, Little Owls were often seen perched in various places, and within a week of our moving to Lincolnshire we had one perched on our garden fence. I've had a hit and miss relationship with Tawnies, usually hear and miss to be fair. When we lived in Mildenhall we often heard them, and once saw one perched on our TV ariel just after dark. We hear them now, but never see them from the house, and I didn't manage to get a decent photo until a couple of years ago, although I usually saw one every year.

What has changed is information, nowadays I can see four species in one day (five if I'm lucky) because everyone knows where to go. Whether this will result in roosts disappearing due to disturbance I don't know, so make the most of it! Certainly some species are in decline but others fluctuate due to influxes or bad weather. The "problem" is Snowy Owl. If you want to see Snowy, go abroad, but if you want it on your UK list you will probably need to throw a lot of time and money at it, unless of course you made a pilgrimage to Shetland in the 1980's, as I did. There is probably at least one bird on Shetland now, but its a long way from any road. There have been, and still are, twitchable birds, but most are in the far north or on islands. I have seen Snowy Owl in Lincolnshire, and later Norfolk (same bird), a poor photo is the only one I have, but such vagrants seem to have dried up. There are three other vagrant owls to our shores, Eurasian Scops has become fairly frequent, Tengmalm's I really should have seen, and when is the next Northern Hawk Owl? -PLEASE!!!

 Seeing owls abroad has also changed. When organised birding tours began, owls were a "pot-luck" thing, you would often see a diurnal species or one that roosts in an open habitat, such as Burrowing or Great Horned Owls, but many species were little more than mythical to most people. Spotlighting gradually became "fashionable", and I remember my first Spectacled Owl, an attractive species. Nowadays owls are often staked out at daytime roosts by guides, and it's not too difficult to build up a decent owl list. I hope to increase mine whilst I'm still around, having spent most of my time on seabirds and waders I've got plenty of choice, but if I don't see Northern Hawk Owl I'm not going!