Close-up of little owl's eye. Picardie, France.

Dear reader, I’m afraid I have neglected you a bit these past weeks. A lot is going on behind the scenes and I will share it with you as soon as I can. Today, I will just relate the story behind the photo above, and I will follow up with two new photos from my section in Universiteitskrant Groningen. But before I do so, I’d like to bring to your attention that the website has a new section with photo stories and films, so that they don’t get buried and forgotten in the blog.

Now for the story. A while ago I spent a few days in France to get away from the the city’s distractions and work on a paper. This is the sort of place where you wake up to the sound of birds singing, and where the hum of a car in the distance makes you realize it’s the first to pass in hours—it’s quiet. On this day, the phone rang, disturbing the peace and quiet only ever so slightly. The call was about a little owl that got itself trapped in the living room of a house in the next village after falling down the chimney.

For some reason this particular chimney appeals to owls. Maybe it looks like a good shelter. Last year two fledgling barn owls fell down the same chimney and sadly rescue came too late for one of them.

Last year a barn owl fledgling died from hunger after falling down a chimney. Picardie, France.

I hurried over to find the little owl had vanished. Puzzled, we started to search the house and found a few pellets and a trail of items it had knocked over. It must have been trapped for a few days already. But after going over all the rooms twice there was still no sign of life. A little owl sure is little, but not thát little—it had to be in the house. Finally, we started taking books from the shelves and, sure enough, there it was, hiding inside a binder. After a few photos it was time to release our little owl and watch it fly away into the quiet of the French countryside, hopefully a little wiser. For this owl, rescue came in time. I could go back to writing my paper with a smile on my face.

Little owl ready for release. Picardie, France.