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!!!

Thursday, 23 September 2010

Chilled out owls.

Owl 'n' about again tonight catching up with a few sites that I haven't visited for a while, first stop was site No 6 at Peckleton, a pair were out here and showed well in good light, sadly too distant for good images but it was great to watch them as they went about business looking for grub.

Site No 6, owl No 1 


Site No 6, owl No 2 


A single owl showed well at site No 1, it did absolutely nothing but sit and stare me out, how bizarre!! 


At site No 32 things got very interesting with some super close up views of the resident pair, the first bird to show kept partially hidden behind the main tree trunk, the cheeky little chap! 


Then a second owl showed, this bird emerged from the nest cavity and just sat there staring, it was if it was totally mesmerised by my presence.


It then popped out of the hole and sat on the edge, totally chilled out. What a privilege to be so close, the light could have been better but I wasn't going to waste such a fantastic photo opportunity, I was really pleased with how this image turned out.


The final site of the night near to Peatling Parva didn't offer very good photo opportunities due to the distance involved, hey but who cares when it is another new site! Yes that's right, site No 127!!!!!! I was checking out a very "owly" wind damaged Willow tree and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted a pair sitting together low down in quite a large hole, the image only shows 1 bird though as by the time I had grabbed the camera 1 had flown off!

 A distant image of the new site/owl.


It's good news for this site though, I introduced myself to the local land owners and they were very hospitable and permission was granted for me to return and hopefully get some better images.......watch this space!
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3 comments:

  1. Friend of HK24 September 2010 at 11:09

    Love the sharp eyes! A bit scary though.

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  2. Ben the plumber25 September 2010 at 20:05

    Its brilliant that you have found yet another site. It was good talking to you the other day mate. I voted brown for the Owl boxes but then it got me thinking, what about green and brown?

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  3. Paul Riddle27 September 2010 at 20:56

    Hi guys, sorry for the delay in repling, I missed both comments on this post.

    Ben.....As I said to you during our call, I was hoping for another new site that evening, I was very lucky!! As for the box colours, I thought about a two tone one but in the end I just went for the plain boring green or brown instead.

    Friend of HK.... please explain what the name means, I'm intrigued?

    As to your comment, yes the eyes are sharpe and scarey in a photo, you want to try being six feet from one!!!!!!

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