The British Trust for Ornithology is commencing two tawny owl surveys this summer to assess distribution.
The first, the tawny owl point survey, starts in August and asks people to adopt one of many 2 km squares selected across the country, stand in the centre on two nice evenings roughly one month apart, and estimate owl territories. Reading is not on the survey, but there are many squares to survey around Wokingham (and nice pubs for afterwards)
The second one, the tawny owl calling survey, starts at the end of September and simply asks you to listen out in your own garden for tawny owls.
You really don’t need any previous knowledge to do either of these surveys as the instructions on the BTO website are very very clear. Please have a go.