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“They all seem to respond very quickly to weather and climate and food availability. And they’ve thrown up a few remarkable behavioural adaptations, feeding a lot more on earthworms for example, due to the very wet weather we’ve had. Owls will actually feed on whatever it’s easiest to catch.
“If there’s a lot of mice in the barn they’ll go there and when that runs out they’ll go somewhere else. As soon as the grain is stored in the barns after har- vest the barn owls are there. It’s almost as if they themselves have got an in- built calendar as to where food will be.”
Capturing a coherent storyline with your ‘cast’ drawn from five dis-
tinct species, when your ‘actors’ can hatch and mature within six to eight weeks, is no mean feat.
After spending a year staring at these remarkable creatures, in all weathers though mostly – it seems – rain, no-one would blame for Johnson if he didn’t want to see these birds again.
Notabitofit.“Owlsareoneofmy favourite subjects,” he chuckles, “so my main worry about doing this film is what on Earth I can do next.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
5 Owl Farm, which was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative, will be broadcast next year
Photos (main): Three Barn Owls; Director/Cameraman Paul Johnson; Long Eared Owl with chicks; snowscape with Short Eared Owl; five Little Owl chicks; Andrew Ritchie’s farm in the Vale of York