Its getting ridiculous, almost every time I have been out owling recently I am finding new sites! Yes it is highly probable it is the juveniles moving away from their natal sites looking to set up their own territories, but never the less they are all still in areas where I have never seen Little Owls before! In my experience the juveniles don't move too far away so in the future the adults and the breeding sites shouldn't be too difficult to locate, with a bit of luck that is!
Last night was no exception to recent events, a nice leisurely walk along the local canal at Kilby Bridge in an area that I have no Little Owl territories..... until last night that is! At around 7.30pm the light was starting to go, as I'd walked a good mile from the car I decided I'd gone far enough and about turned for the return journey. Then totally out of the blue I thought I heard a single Little Owl call? I couldn't be positive, maybe it was a figment of the imagination.... or just wishful thinking!!
Then I heard it again, and again, there was two of them, they where calling to each other along a hedgerow a 100 metres or so into a field from where I stood. After what seemed an aged I finally located one of them sitting high up in a hawthorn bush, sadly it got too dark to locate the second bird but what a result, new site No 125!
Look forward to seeing the fruits from this new site Paul.
ReplyDeleteYou are very lucky...I know only of two sites near to me and the birds are a bu**er to photograph at both of them!
Hi Anthony, re-visited tonight and managed my first images of the birds from site 125. Not the best of images, just record shots really, as like you I find most of my sites a bu**er to get close enough for decent images.
ReplyDeleteYou say you only have 2 Little Owl sites local to where you live, I thought the same about my area once upon a time.............!!!!