Adrian Thomas looks to the skies for three special birds that you may see over your garden or might even attract into your space to breed

The best rare birds seen all around Britain in 2025

Fluid in flight and perplexingly wide-ranging, the short-eared owl is a singular figure in the family– and a figure of particular terror to the vole

I’d just dropped Sarah off at a small railway station in Scotland and, after several weeks travelling together, I was on my own again. She was heading home to Cornwall, leaving me free to devote time

Reading Sam Pyrah’s feature ‘In search of natural wonders’ in the January issue, I can’t imagine she was standing close to her starling murmuration, or she would have mentioned the incredible noise it

Whether for its textbook appearance, regional ubiquity or haunting and mellifluous call, it’s no wonder the inimitable tawny may be Britain’s best-loved owl