Owl and the pussy cat push the boat out to dine again

And it is probably thanks to Percy, the warden’s cat, that the bird support team at Tophill Low Nature Reserve, near Driffield, are proud to be watching three healthy barn owl chicks taking their first looks at the world from inside one of the reserve’s nesting boxes.

Barn owls suffered badly during the hard middle of last winter, and Yorkshire Water’s warden at Tophill Low, Richard Hampshire, realised things were getting bad when the female of a resident pair was found dead.

Luckily, he had a box full of moles and voles in his freezer – which had all been supplied by Percy during the happy hunting days of summer.

“I started to leave one out every day or two for the male owl,” says Mr Hampshire.

“And I like to think it was what pulled him through.”

This spring, volunteers who looks after 120 nesting boxes at Tophill Low – providing shelter for everything from barn owls to blue tits – discovered the bereaved male had found a new mate and hatched three healthy chicks.

There was no more need for Percy’s services. It has been a fine spring and summer for voles. But Mr Hampshire said: “I will be tucking some of his catch away again, with an eye on next winter. My wife wasn’t too happy about it before, but Percy is now a kind of godfather to three owls, after all.”