Owls brave the trenches in search of mice: Country diary 100 years ago

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 9 January 1917

Several correspondents in France have referred to the owls which find the trenches such profitable mouseries that they hunt by day. The latest note on the subject comes from one of our south coast camps, where a light brown owl - probably a barn owl - found daylight sport anything but peaceful. The lads who were watching it were not the trouble, but a number of gulls resented its presence, "and flew excitedly around it," though apparently they did not venture to attack the unusual-looking bird. Then a rook, no doubt attracted by the calls of the gulls, came along, flying above the owl. It darted upon the mouse-hunter, striking it on the back with its beak, and down fell the owl. "We saw it no more," writes my correspondent, but it does not follow that the owl was slain; a rook coming down with wings half-closed, "stooping" like a falcon, is certainly a formidable foe, but the feathers on an owl's back are wonderfully thick and soft, and would act as an elastic cushion protecting the body.

A small bird which "seems to fly in jumps" has puzzled the same correspondent; it is black and white with "a black boomerang band on its white throat" and white streaks - outer feathers - on its tail. Undoubtedly our friend the pied wagtail; many of these birds are now wintering on our southern shores.