Hoots of desire: how an owl’s frustrated yearning led to cross-species obsession

Poet and artist Frieda Hughes finds an unlikely admirer as a male owl’s obsession with her turns into an intense battle for love during mating season

MATING SEASON

As one of five males he has discovered

The only female is engaged, monogamy being an owl undertaking

That cannot be snatched from the claws of his Eurasian rival.

He paces and hoots, calling out his frustration

And demanding attention, his hormones boiling like a teenager’s,

And then he sees me, skirting the inside of the aviary, escaping.

Daily, he bangs his beak on the glass of the door

That separates his home from mine,

A defrosted day-old chick dangling from the tip

As if offering dinner – perhaps with wine.

He bulldozes door-gaps for entry,

He flies at my shoulders determined to mate

Or maybe impregnate my left ear.

Stroking his feathers down I explain

That I am entirely the wrong species

And point at crows pairing, and the twin aspects

Of garden dove and wood pigeon couples.

But he will not desist until the season is over

When his blood cools, I lose my lustre,

And his ardour reverts to disinterest.