A PRENTON family received a shock when they discovered two tawny owls flying around their living room at 2am on Sunday.

After hearing banging downstairs, the family’s initial thought was they were being burgled.

They were advised to leave the lights off and open all the windows to encourage the owls to make their own way out - they didn’t!

When an RSPCA inspector arrived the next day to collect the birds, he found they had taken over the living room and were asleep on the curtain poles.

The owls are believed to have been building a nest before falling down the chimney.

The officer took the owls home before releasing them back into the wild on Sunday night.