"Brian" --- 'flayb' to respond wrote in message
...
Has for three consecutive years nested in a
platform/hollow in one of our beech trees. Possible to see from the ground
but only that she was nesting~ no details.
During the winter we built an elaborate hide in a neighbouring
beech looking right down onto the site. Complete with ladder [on the
blind~side], binoculars, sleeping bag and video camera etc. Just as, I
suppose, I really expected she didn't return this year.
After waiting long enough we went to recover the contents only to
find she had nested in the hide with two owlets on the sleeping bag!!. I
can't win.
Best Wishes Brian.

I didn't know till today that they are not found in Ireland.



That is a great story!!
They are indeed absent from Ireland. Ireland at night, in the countryside,
is almost silent. We get toads in one place only and otherwise have no
nightingales and no tawny owls. The latter were a great surprise when we
lived in Germany and England. It was a great nightime sound to hear a high
pitched plaintive hoooooo hoooooooooooooooooooooo in the distance (Everybody
Loves the Sound of an Owl in the Distance la la la ...). It is very
evocative. We get Barn Owls and Long Eared owls. I think the latter hoot
but I have never heard one.

Des