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If you would like to stay at The Old Vicarage, please book online or call us direct on 01748 884348 or 07704 455854.
Check availability →Posted: 17/02/2023
Owls have got to be amongst our most spectacular native birds and we are lucky to have three of our five British species living close to The Old Vicarage. These are the distinctive ghost-white Barn Owl, the larger Tawny Owl and the incredibly cute Little Owl.
Guests can often hear them calling in the quietness of the evenings and may even see them perched in trees or flying across the surrounding meadowland. Car headlights are particularly good at picking them up on the access road to the property.
Pictured is a male Barn Owl sitting on one of our field tree guards. We have three in the vicinity of The Old Vicarage – two males and a female – that choose to roost in our field barns. In fact their habit of hunting on farms and nesting in barns is what gives them their name.
Most days at the moment we see a small male swooping and hovering at dawn and dusk hunting for his next meal. He loves moving around the Highland cattle and their pastures and quite often swoops silently over our heads too. These pastures are perfect habitats for small voles and other mammals that they love to eat.
The Tawny Owls are also abundant and can often be heard at night, t’wit-t’wooing in the trees. Tawny chicks love to scramble along branches outside their nest before they fledge. Did you know the Tawny female makes a 'too-wit' sound and the male answers with 'too-woo'?!
Our third owl species is the quirky and characterful Little Owl, which is Britain’s smallest owl at 22cm tall with a 56cm wingspan. The Little Owl is actually not a native species and was introduced in the late 1800s. Adults can make over 20 different vocalisations, which can resonate several kilometres on a still night. The walls just to the side and below The Old Vicarage, together with a small stone barn here, are a regular haunt - hence their nickname of stone owls around here - and guests often hear their call.
If you would like to stay at The Old Vicarage, please book online or call us direct on 01748 884348 or 07704 455854.
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