The Canewdon Parish is well known for reports of ghostly apparitions, but if you venture onto Wallasea Island at dusk or dawn there is no need for fear. The spectral shapes you might see are more likely to be barn owls hunting for mice, shrews and rats along the field, seawall, saltmarsh and road margins.
This distinctive bird, with its heart shaped face, one metre wing-span and piercing shriek, is widely distributed around…