This owl was brought to me as a twenty-day-old chick after being blown out of its nest during severe winds in early March. Unfortunately, the nest site, within a large park in Perth, Scotland, could not be located, so I had no choice but to rear the chick myself. The egg must have been laid in mid-January, exceptionally early but predictable following our milder winters of late. A month after I started looking after it, the owl chick escaped, and I was amazed to find it a few days later being fed by a local tawny owl pair who had responded to its begging calls. Quite an eventful start to life!

- Keith Brockie