Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Meet The Parents.

Last night I was on a Little owl chick hunt, time is now of the essence as soon they will be capable of flying which coincides with them adopting the parents proficiencies as "masters of disguise" and then they are terribly difficult to find.

The only one I managed an image of was this little chap hiding away inside its nest hole at site 19, both parents were in attendance albeit higher up in the tree.


One of the parent owls keeping a very close watch on me!


The second adult owl was also watching my every movement, I was able to walk right underneath it and capture this unusual pose. 


During my dash from site to site chicks were seen in or around the nest at a total of 3 locations, (site 51 x 2, site 22 x 1 and site 19 x 1) this now takes my running tally to 25 chicks seen at 11 different sites. Many many more to come..............fingers crossed!

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