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!!!

Saturday, 12 June 2010

Variety is the spice of life.

Today I was owl n about very early, by 5.30am I was already at my chosen location (site 92 near Gilmorton)and sitting in my hide awaiting the owls to show. The reason for the early start was.......light!! This nest site is situated underneath a large tree and the canopy leaves it in complete shade for the whole day, apart from an hour or so at sunrise. So it was just a matter of keeping an eye on the weather forecast as to when it was going to be a nice bright start to the day.........and today was the day!!!! 

During the three hours I was there the owls made five visits to the nest site. As you will see from my images a constant supply of food was coming in, and a real variety too. I'm sure if the parent owls keep this up the 3 owlets will soon be out the nest and off.....fingers crossed.

On the first visit they brought in a right old juicy worm, look at the dam length of it, longer than the owl!! 


The second visit it was a moth........I think?


With the third and fourth visits came even more variety in the form of little grubs and caterpillars, buy sadly no images as a very inconsiderate branch was blowing about in the wind and obscured my line of sight.

Then some proper grub was brought in in the shape of a small rodent, not sure if it's a shrew, mouse or vole? But one thing's for sure, it was dead and it was gunna be eaten!!!


A really enjoyable few hours, but sadly the sun soon moved round and the light levels dropped too low to get any more decent images.  

1 comment:

  1. Now that's what I call dedication! - and what great results!! Another cracking set of images, Paul.

    ReplyDelete