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!!!

Sunday, 24 October 2010

Bespoke Database.

Saturday afternoon found me "back to owling", it was a late start though as in the morning I was sat in front of the PC for a few hours playing around with a new data base that has been created for me especially for my owl records.

Imputing data couldn't be easier now, it takes a fraction of the time and the data only has to be inputted once, everything is then automatically sorted in to the relevant sections. By simply selecting one of the six tabs at the bottom all the info I want is there, specific site data, nest box info, breeding history, monthly sitings etc. No more manual counting of how many sightings I have made, it does everything automatically...........it is just brilliant!

This is a screen shot of what one of the pages looks like.


Many many thanks to Chris & Jack for creating it for me, it's just fantastic.

Anyway, I did eventually get out on Saturday afternoon, I revisited my most recently found site No 131 to try and get some daytime images. Sadly after a 2 hour wait they hadn't shown so I moved down the lane to site No 124.

Here both adult birds were located in and around the nest tree but they weren't showing too well as they were sheltering from the driving wind and rain. I waited patiently and eventually in between the showers the sun came out and a few images were obtained, my first of the adults from this site.

Site No 124 at Peating Magna  



On my way back I stopped off again at site No 131, this time the owls were out and did show very briefly, sadly though no images were possible. I won't be giving up just yet and will be returning soon.......

2 comments:

  1. I love the top Owl image mate, Good news about your database also.

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  2. My battery went flat on my mobile and I didnt charge the phone until last night mate. I will call you later in the week to sort a day out. I left a message on Birdguides also mate.

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