No Nomad!

A couple of spare hours late on Sunday afternoon found me revisiting (for the fifth time) my site No 140 over near Fleckney. A single owl was first recorded just before Xmas and no further sightings since! I had a pressing need to confirm one way or the other if it was still hanging around, or was it just a nomad bird passing through?

I pulled up near to the tree where it was last seen and waited, after 30 minutes I'd all but given up with yet another "no show", it was time to resigned myself that it may well of just been a "passing through nomad owl". I then noticed that the Ivy on the suspect tree was moving unnaturally, something was causing it to do that, was it the owl??? It most certainly was, and a pair of them as well!

Great news on two counts, the owl was still here, and a pair.....what a bonus! Taking an image was difficult as they were distant,  high up, low light levels and the dam branches kept obscuring the view.

A difficult to take image of the pair at site No 140. 

On the way home I took a some what longer route back through the village of Walton, an area that as yet I haven't checked over for Little Owls. Along the lanes there were some very owly looking areas that would need further investigation. One area in particularly caught my eye, it  had all the signs, a scattering of mature trees, lots of hedgerows and an old ramshackle of a barn.  As I was studying the area a local dog walker came along, we got chatting and not to my surprise he had seen owls here, but not for a few months. As the light was closing in and it was nearing the "owling hour" of dusk I opted to hang around.....just in case! Five minutes was all I had to wait before I heard it, yes a Little Owl calling. Although I waited for what seemed an age and by the time I left it was pitch black I never actually saw the bird, never the less get in there site No 148! 

As with a lot of other sites that I have visited recently, "I will be back" blimey I'm going to be busy boy!