I can show you literally hundreds of photos of where one of our owl chicks has been a nano-second previously. But none, alas, of a chick itself. Let alone one looking obligingly at the camera…

It was only when the builders were gone and tranquility had been restored to the olive groves and vineyards around our Abruzzo villas that we began to fully appreciate how rich the area was in wildlife.

Birds, butterflies, foxes and hares all share our Abruzzo garden.