Internet users have been granted unprecedented access to a pair of barn owls after a nature reserve began broadcasting footage from a nest box.

Suffolk Wildlife Trust has started a live stream from the web camera that was installed in a box at Redgrave and Lopham Fen nature reserve, near Diss, earlier this year.

The pair are incubating two eggs and wildlife trust staff hope to be witnessing the hatching of chicks in the near future.

The owls, who have been named Mr and Mrs P, after the trust's resident barn owl expert Steve Piotrowski, raised four chicks from the box last year.

The camera is only the size of a matchbox and was carefully installed before the owls began to use the box, said Kerry Stranix, Suffolk Wildlife Trust communications manager.

She added: 'The barn owl is such an iconic Suffolk species, and while you may be lucky enough to spot one out hunting it is a real treat to view the goings on inside the nest box. We've had the camera running for a couple of weeks now and my colleagues and I are hooked. I have had great fun watching it with my family in the evening, we have seen the owls feeding, preening and even mating.'

The camera was installed by a company called Wildlife Whisperer - Simon King's new website, which has an Ipswich base.

The online stream can be viewed at www.ispyabarnowl.tumblr.com