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, 2 October 2011

Good bad & the ugly!

OK, as the title to this post suggests it has been a bit of a mixed bag over the weekend.

GOOD.........Well actually there were two weekend occurrences that fit nicely into this category, the first was a non owly thing but never the less it made my weekend.......watching the mighty Leicester City FC "Ramming" 4 goals past Derby County, that was brilliant in itself but it was made all the better with a celebrating drink that lasted well into the late hours!! The second positive note was another new Little Owl site, taking my overall tally to a very giddy 200!! I chanced upon a really nice old looking barn late on Friday night near the village of Walton. Saturday morning I was compelled to investigate it further but not before I found out who owned it? After a bit of networking the landowner was sought out and permission was granted for me to take a closer look.

The barn in question did come up with the goods, a solitary Little Owl was located inside, a terrible image but it was rather dark in there! I suppose this image should of been under the "bad" category too!


BAD...........I took the time out over the weekend to make several visits to see if the four juvenile little Owls were still hanging around at my site No 87. It is almost certainly bad news now as I just can't relocate them anywhere. I did however locate and photograph the female adult owl sheltering at the entrance to a cavity nearby (below).


UGLY.........I am due to be re-decorating my home office very shortly and thought it would be nice to hang a few of my owl images on the walls. Therefore whilst doing a bit of printing this afternoon I started playing around with my editing software, this was the result.......


Yes it's a bit arty and slightly dramatic, oh yes dam ugly too.......but I like it so it's going to take pride of place!

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