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 10 November 2012

Birding week....the start.

Today (Saturday) marks the start of a long overdue "birding week" I have the whole of next week off work and I am going to make the most of it!  Thankfully I have no long lists of jobs or chores to be done around the house so all the time will be mine to do what I want with it. I have on purposely called it a birding week and not an owling week. The reason being the owl scene tends to be pretty quiet at this time of year, unless of course I am able to locate some more Leicestershire SEO's (Short Eared Owls)?
 
So a bit of variety is on the cards, I am planning a few day trips out, going to the coast is a deffo and hopefully a few wader species will put in an appearance? Another trip back to the Peak District is also planned, I just love it up there!
 
So I started the week off as I mean to go on, a nice early start was had this morning. I hadn't got that much time so I stayed local because I'm off to the footie later. The mighty Leicester City are playing near neighbours Nottingham Forest, (hiss boo) at 12.15pm, my prediction is a 3-1 win for city!!!   
 
So this morning I flitted from site to site looking for some SEO's, no luck there but I did bump into a Little Owl at my site 120. It was perched up at the entrance to its nest hole, the images (below) are a bit drab looking and rather grainy but that unfortunately is what your up against when the weather/light is poor.



Hopefully the weather will hold out for me next week and there will be a nice variety of bird images to come?

4 comments:

  1. That second image is beautiful Paul. Hoping your week gets you some great results. Not sure about the footie though!!!

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    1. You were right not being sure about the footie score, thanks for your comments mate.

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  2. Great images Paul, I think the shorties are going to be a struggle, all the fields around here being so flooded no prey etc. Look forward to see where you end up this week.

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    1. I have already spent many hours looking for shorties, not good! You could be right it is too wet?

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