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!!!

Saturday 29 September 2012

Walking Owls.

Following my last Little Owl post I received a few complementary comments from readers regarding an image that I'd captured of a "walking" owl. At the time I didn't think much to it but having had chance to review I now quite like it. So with that in mind this morning I re-visited the same site to see if some other similar images could be captured. This site lends itself to capture this type of image because the owls like to frequent and feed around a mound of dirt in a field. I believe the local farmer buried a dead horse here a while ago and since the earth was disturb it now attracts the owls. But the best thing about the mound is its height, standing a good couple of feet proud of the surrounding field level (must of been a Shire Horse?) it gets me at eye level with them.
 
Upon arrival there were no owls to be seen, which was a surprise as there was no wind and the sun was blaring down. I positioned the car in an opportune position where I could see the whole of the mound whilst having the sun shining from behind me, all I needed now were some owls!
 
After two hours of waiting a single owl eventually put in an appearance! Sadly it was an all too brief visit, only about 15 minutes but it was well worth it as I managed to grab a few shots of it as it grubbed around looking for some morsels and tit bits. 








I'm pretty pleased with the final results, even if they have all been cropped quite heavily due to the distances involved, a wee bit far for my 300mm lens, but next time I'll park closer and hopefully get some real close ups. Thanks to the readers who prompted me with the idea of the "walking" owls.
 
Hope you like them?

9 comments:

  1. Great images Paul like them all, but my personal favourites are the fourth and last one, "mid leap"

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    1. Cheers Doug, I took your advice and uploaded the last one to BG's.

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  2. There's certainly legs in this concept Paul. More please!

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    1. Glad you liked them Christian, thanks for your comment.

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  3. Hard-pressed to nominate a favourite here Paul - they're all so damned good!

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    1. Hey be careful what you say Richard, you will be making my head swell!!! Cheers buddy.

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  4. jaja!!!.. :-)))
    Fantastic!!!.. Superb pictures!!!.. So funny.. Regards..

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