LIFE'S a hoot at an owl sanctuary in the region after the arrival of a long-awaited addition.

Ural owls Ursula and Unwin have been trying for three years to start a family.

Staff at the Kirkleatham Owl Centre, near Redcar, east Cleveland, decided to help out this year and put the clutch of eggs laid by Ursula in an incubator.

After a month-long incubation, the proud parents have a son.

Centre manager Craig Wesson said: "Ursula and Unwin have been attempting to breed without success for the past three years, so this year we decided to place the eggs in our incubator to check that they were fertile or discover why they were not hatching. After a month-long incubation, our first Ural owl hatched."

In the wild, the brown and ash greycoloured Urals are a bird of the northern forests and are found from Europe to Japan.