Finding the famous five owls

The UK has five owl species that are well known and often encountered, but seeing any of them depends on where you live and perhaps knowing how and where to look. Some are surprisingly easy to find, while others are much more secretive. And, of course, some are hunters of the night and much harder to spot. Barn Owl The Barn Owl is probably the easiest of Britain’s owls to tick. Head for farmland with margins, ditches and road edges at dusk on a dry evening, and you might see one hunting rodents. Barn Owl at Earith For the Wild Fen Edge patch crowd, the drainage ditches along Cottenham’s Broad Lane and beyond, and the land around Long Drove, are good local spots. The Waterbeach water meadows along the River Cam are worth checking too. Beach Road between Cottenham and Rampton can be productive, where Barn Owls exploit the disturbance caused to rodents by passing traffic. The cut between Rampton and Northstowe is another possibility. When to see them: Any time of year, usually at dusk…