...is barn owl, and this afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing one of the two chicks in the presence of Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union.
Everyone likes barn owls - I know they are one of my favourite birds - and it's great to have them at the RSPB's arable farm in Cambridgeshire. They are nesting in a nestbox given to us by the NFU so it was also great to show the chicks to Peter.
It doesn't seem to be a very good year for barn owls generally, and there were five chicks a while back, so our fingers are crossed for these two chicks and their parents. The adults are feeding along the beetle banks and flower-rich margins that we have put in at the farm with the funding from the Entry Level Scheme.
Peter and I teased each other over the set-aside announcement that may come next week (I think Peter will have more to be happy about than I or wildlife) and I tried to persuade him to put skylark patches into his fields next year - we were standing in one at the time and several skylarks were singing around us.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.