Owl watchers spend two days observing plastic models

Husband and wife Ken and Fay Jackson couldn't believe their eyes when they spotted an owl in daylight on the roof of a block of flats opposite their Torquay home. The not-so-wise nocturnal bird had obviously confused day for night as it sat waiting for its prey on the roof across the way from the Jacksons' home at Waldon Point in St Luke's Road.

Fay said: "Ken was outside on the balcony in the morning when he said there was an owl on the roof opposite. Maureen, our cleaner, came in and said she could see two. I said, 'That would be the pair, then.'



"We kept looking but they weren't moving much. I thought, they do stalk their prey but didn't think they would find many mice up there." The owls were checked at various times through the day and Fay even tried to contact wildlife expert Brian Carter to investigate and take a photograph.

Good job she couldn't get hold of him. A check with the binoculars as the day came to a close revealed the owls were not all they were made out to be. They weren't clever, day-time stalkers. They were fake. "They must be up there to keep the gulls away," said Fay, who is usually regarded as a wise bird.