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!!!

Friday, 9 July 2010

54 and rising!

Tonight I returned to my new site 108 at Gilmorton, I was attempting to capture my first images of the resident owls, whilst there I also wanted to try and identify the nest site and also if there had been any breeding success this year..........I was triumphant on all three counts.

After I'd parked up within the vicinity of where I saw an owl on my last visit I immediately heard the distinctive "hissing" of a begging juvenile. The sound was coming from a very large wooden shed/workshop, I surveyed it for any potential nest entrances when an adult owl exited out of a tiny cavity in the apex of the roof.  

Not the best of images but my first of an owl from this site.
  

The juvenile then put in its first appearance, it had a quick peek at me before it disappeared, it wasn't seen or heard again whilst I was there. Good news though, breeding confirmation at another site this year.


I then moved on down the road to re-visit another new owl location that was also in Gilmorton, site No 109. A single bird showed tonight but it was quite late and the light had almost but gone, sadly no evidence of any breeding success was evident.


I have now recorded a minimum of 54 juveniles at 26 different sites so far this year.

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