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

Shooting in the dark!

After my "chick chase" (see previous posting) I found myself driving home past site 16, sadly no chicks showing here yet but one of the parent owls was out having a right good old flutter around. Although the sun had set (9.45pm) and the light levels were extremely poor I thought I would chance my arm and see if it was possible to get some images? Shooting at an ISO of 1600 and shutter speeds in the region of a 1/40th of a second most of the images were blurred or too dark but here are a few that I thought were ok, as usual double click on any image for a larger and more detailed version.



 A bit of an "arty" image although the owl is difficult to spot, can you see him?


What became apparent after a while was the owl was "on the feed" I watched him pluck several moths from the air in true aerobatic style (something I have only witnessed on one previous occasion).



The next item of prey to be seized upon were a few black beetles taken from the ground, once caught he made his way back into the nest hole, mmmmmmmmm maybe to the chicks????? In this image you can just make out one of the caught beetles in the right claw.
   

All the evidence points to chicks in the nest, I will be visiting again very soon...........

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