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!!!

Tuesday 26 June 2012

A local bonus!

This evening I was fulfilling a long standing promise I'd made to yet another friend who has been desperate for some close up views of Little Owls, a good evening was had too as in total we saw 13 different Little Owls, 6 adults and 7 juveniles. He was well pleased with the viewing and stated the 12 month wait was worth it, .........sorry mate but we did finally get there!

Once I'd honoured my promise and dropped him off a happy chappy I was off out again, the light was still good and there was enough time left for me to go and do a bit of photography. I'm glad I did too as some super views were had.




 
On my way back and only 5 minutes from home I had a really nice surprise, a new Barn Owl site. I'd always had my suspicions that they were in the area, hence the erecting of 4 nest boxes close by but I'd never seen one, until tonight.

It was located sitting at a cavity entrance that I always check whenever passsing out this way, I was actually hoping to find Little Owl but this was a much better find!  When I spotted it I didn't stop, I kept driving until I was able to pull over and get the camera out. All the camo was re-positioned at the windows and then I reversed back up and parked next to the tree. After a 20 minute wait the Barn Owl re-emerged at the entrance, by now it was nearly 10pm, although you'd never guess that judging by the image, below. ISO was at 2,000 and a shutter speed of half a second, thank goodness I had my bespoke camera clamp with me!


And you know what, the nest boxes that I have erected near to where this owl was seen haven't even been checked this year yet! It's not easy though when I have nearly a 100 boxes to monitor, getting around them all takes time, a lot of time!! I suppose I need to get my act together and make the time, guess what I am going to be doing soon?

3 comments:

  1. Sensacionales y espectaculares fotografías.
    Saludos.

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  2. Super images Paul, all great and the barnie capped off a great nights work.

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  3. Amazing to get that Barnie in those conditions.

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