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A Norfolk potoo

17 May 2016 by Simon Barnes 9 Comments

The poor bare forked dead willow has a new branch today. I looked up and its deeply familiar outline was changed. There is a new growth sprouting from the brusque yard-long horizontal. If I hadn’t known the damn tree so well – it gets around 100 gazes a day as I look up between sentences – I’d have accepted the pretence for what it seemed: a dumpy lumpy stumpy bit of tree.

No bird on earth can pretend to be a branch quite as well as a potoo, a South American nightjar relative. But here at noon in May a little owl was doing a pretty decent job: motionless, bark-coloured, with only those cross yellow eyes to give it away.

I’ve never seen him there before. My guess is that the cold weather and the north wind have caused a drastic shortage in food supplies for the nest he has 50 yards away. So he’s trying a different hunting-perch, or more likely, a different time to exploit it. A tactic of desperation, perhaps. He hasn’t moved a muscle in 20 minutes. If I were Mowgli I’d give him the jungle’s great greeting: Good hunting!

But after half-an-hour a crow chased him off. Not fooled. And because he can. Alas poor owlets!

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Posted in Wildblog

Comments

  1. Andy Lloyd Williams (Mrs) says

    17 May 2016 at 9:32 pm

    One really feels for the owlets! You conjure up the scene so brilliantly. It is very good too, to read your articles in the Sunday Times. Thank you.

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      20 May 2016 at 4:49 pm

      Thank you for your kind words, I saw the owl today. Still looks very busy.

      Reply
  2. Ken Roberts says

    17 May 2016 at 10:33 pm

    I’m confused and puzzled Simon! I’ve checked my iSpiny “Chirp!” app on the iPad, thinking you might have meant a Little Owl, but his eyes don’t appear to be yellow, and I don’t think you meant an owlet, as Andy thinks, because you mention a nest, which implies it’s an adult!

    I suspect it was a Scops, Pygmy, long or short-eared, or a Tengmalms!!?? Goodness gracious..there ARE a lot of owl varieties, aren’t there?? :-0

    Reply
  3. Ken Roberts says

    17 May 2016 at 10:41 pm

    OOps, sorry…just reread your post and see you call it an owlet at the end!! Too much red wine peut-etre??

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      20 May 2016 at 4:50 pm

      It was a little owl, and they do have yellow eyes, I promise!

      Reply
  4. Fran Morley says

    17 May 2016 at 10:53 pm

    I have rejoiced in your full page in The Times magazine as much as I mourned the loss of your column which lurked under the Giles Coren laugh out loud piece. Short of time, that was the page I went to first and never missed.Your successors are very worthy and knowledgeable and I do read them but your very tangible passion for the natural world and the way you communicate that remains a very great pleasure. Thank you.

    Reply
  5. Anthony Bird says

    18 May 2016 at 5:06 pm

    Simon, you are back from your African adventures and produce another excellent piece, where you in Thetford Forest this morning walking a long coated Golden Labrador?

    Reply
    • Simon Barnes says

      20 May 2016 at 4:51 pm

      No it wasn’t! I am dog-less.

      Reply
  6. Nick Goddard says

    24 May 2016 at 9:32 pm

    Really pleased to see you’re back.

    Reply

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