The book of the barn owl /

Few of us know what goes on after dark, underneath the moon. Sally Coulthard shines a light on the barn owl, one of the most mesmerising and elusive icons of the countryside. With its heart-shaped face and silent, graceful flight, the barn owl regularly tops the nation's list of favourite birds. A brief sighting is a thrill, hovering along a hedgerow or sweeping over a stubble field, but how much do we really know about this sublime tenant of the night? We humans, ever the egocentrics, fancy we see ourselves in the barn owl's big, baby eyes and quizzical tilt of the head. But the barn owl lives on a different plane - a yearly see-saw of feast and famine, companionship and solitude. It's a tough life - living in the shadows - but the barn owl has made it this far.