Helpston's wildlife

Little Owl

The little owl [click to listen] is a common bird locally, but interestingly is not a native species and nor is it a species that John Clare would have heard.

It was introduced to England back in the late 1870's. One of the places it was first released was on the estates of Lord Lilford near Oundle, where it first bred in 1889.

Several pairs nest locally - the Green Way, near Maxham's Cottage, and the area around Woodcroft and along the Maxey Road are the best places to see them or to hear their eerie cat like calls at dusk. A pair has nested regularly in recent years in a barn owl nest box north of the South Cut, Etton.

I had forgotten how small

It is, the Liitle Owl -

Melting into the bark

Of the great field oak

Forgotten too its stare

A yellow blinkless glare:

And the grip it perches by -

Clenching a whole tree.

Peter Walton, from The Cheerfulness of Sparrows and other poems

Shoestring Press