If you don’t know about the wildlife that is in your local area, you won’t know if it is under threat and it will quietly disappear. If you don’t restore habitats for wildlife in your local area, such as hedgerows or wildflower meadows, wildlife will continue to decline.
A walk at dawn or dusk can be magical, revealing wildlife that you will not usally see, such as a barn owl, hare or a fox. A walk through a summer meadow full of wildflowers and butterflies is one of life’s joys! Children have a natural interest and curiosity in wildlife and will love to explore local areas with you.
Learning and caring
One of the barn owl’s favourite meals is the field vole – these little mammals reproduce quickly during the summer and temporarily take up residence anywhere where grass is ungrazed and unmown.
Though mainly a nocturnal owl, barn owls can sometimes be seen in daylight, particularly when they are breeding and have large chicks in the nest – often around June and July. Their feathers have no water repellancy so if it’s been raining all night they can’t hunt and there is a much better chance of seeing them hunting in daylight the following morning.
Barn owls also sometimes resort to daylight activity in the winter during prolonged spells of severely cold weather.
