An owl has been spotted peeking through the kitchen window of a Greenstead home.

Chris Hill, 30, of Hawthorn Avenue spotted the Little Owl at about 8.40am on Wednesday morning.

He said: “I just heard this scuffling noise and thought what an earth is that.

“It was quite odd. It’s not the sort of thing you normally see.

“In broad daylight you don’t expect to see them.”

After Mr Hill spotted the bird it stayed there for a few minutes before flying off.

He said:  “I just grabbed my camera and snuck up on him.

“It seemed very small but quite content to sit there for a while.

“There are a lot of trees in the area.

“I don’t know if he was resting in one of those.”

Adam Taylor, from the Essex Wildlife Trust, said: “Our most educated guess as to why this bird is resting on a window sill is that we are currently during the phase of post-juvenile dispersal where this year’s young fledge the nest, explore the local area and try to find their own territory ready for next year.

“We believe that this is a juvenile from this year that has fledged from a nest in farmland near to the Greenstead estate, it may have decided to rest due to bad weather, tiredness or possibly because of a local availability of worms in local gardens.”