owl

The new album’s title may hint at sunshine and waking hours, but make no mistake, Yoakam is a night owl, a man for whom work begins around dusk and often stretches into dawn.

I looked like an owl, my head swiveling on my neck, trying to take it all in.

One birdwatcher, who spotted a short-eared owl above moorland in the Peak District only to see it shot out of the sky, agreed to speak to the BBC anonymously as he feared reprisals for reporting the killing to the police.

He said the killing was “wrong on every level”, explaining: "This was an owl which was doing no wrong, a beautiful bird people go out of their way to watch, and someone had thought 'I can shoot that!'."

The witness reported the shooting to the police and helped them to locate the body of the owl.