A few years ago I saw two Owls taken in the district, one shot by a local gamekeeper, the other taken alive in Lough Feay plantation and subsequently liberated. They were both Barn Owls (Aluco flammeus). I have heard of others being observed or shot in the district, and of one which was recently wounded at a neighbouring farmhouse and confined in an outhouse, from which it subsequently escaped. It was described as coloured nearly like a corncrake with a face like a cat, and referred to as “one of those Night Owls,” the only local name which I have heard applied to the birds.
The Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and the Sparrow Hawk (Accipter nisus) nests in several of the local glens. I have observed numbers of nests of the latter birds, all of which were lined with wool. I was informed by a neighbour that a pair of Sparrow Hawks nested safely in a Hawthorn bush—convenient to his property—three years in succession.
The Kestrel I have heard referred to as “one of those Sparrow Hawks that flutters in the air,” and the male Sparrow Hawk as “one of those big Blue Hawks.” An amusing story is told concerning a young female Sparrow Hawk which was captured some years ago by a resident of this district and trained for sporting purposes. A neighbour possessed a terrier dog which was a keen ratter, and one day during harvesting operations the terrier and a string collie dog unearthed number of rats’ nests in an old peat fence. They killed 30 rats, which were placed in a row by the proud owner and his assistants, when suddenly a hawk pounced down and flew off with one. The surprised onlookers judged by the direction of its flight that is was the tame Hawk, which subsequently repeated the performance until it placed the 30 rats on the ridge of its owner’s barn.—G. B. M’Keown (Draperstown)
George Barnett 