TOO WET TO WOO?

Downpours have grounded owls ...but it seems love is still in the air

- Stuart Winter

INCESSANT rains have been a bane for owls this winter, leaving them cold and hungry.

Downpours day and night force these skilled hunters to hunker down rather than risk drenching velvety wing feathers needed for silent sorties.

The loud pitter-patter of cloudbursts also leaves their acute hearing to detect the faint sounds of scurrying rodents in dark ineffective.

How owls are suffering in one of the wettest winters on record came home to roost last week with a series of ghostly pleas outside the bedroom window.