Local Owls and Scotland.....

Hi all.

Of late my only real trips out have been spent doing some "general birding" plenty of good species seen but they don't seem to quite hit the spot for me like an owl does! So my appetite had been whetted to see an owl or two, I wasn't bothered what species just as long as it was an owl. 

I'd recently re-discovered the Little Owls at my site No 105, although I'd been visiting the area fairly regular of late I always seem to get distracted by the local Kingfishers. So on this more recent visit I ignored the area near the river and went and parked up near the nest tree that the Little owls used last year. I spent an hour here and in all that time I only saw the male bird. I suspect that the hen bird must still be sitting tight incubating her eggs, hence no sightings?

After initially satisfying my "owl fix" with the single Little Owl at site No 105 I then wanted to see a different species so I headed over to one of my known and active Tawny Owl sites. Here two birds were seen although it did take a while for them to show out in the open for a photo or two.

I then set of to another location with the very ambitious task of seeing my third different owl species in as many hours, a Barn Owl. There is a new pair I know of that have taken up in residence in a natural site (Ash Tree) and so far my viewing/photo opportunities have been limited.

I hung around waiting for the a Barnie to show, no luck there but I did have a very brief frame filling view of one of the Little Owls at my nearby site No 230.

In the end I came to the conclusion that these new Barn Owls weren't going to show, so reluctantly I gave up on them and moved on. It proved to be a good decision as the at the second location where I hoped to see a Barn Owl came up trumps.

I parked the car around 100 yards from an old building where I have a nest box sited. Initially there was nothing to see or hear but as soon as the sun had slumped down over the horizon the action commenced. A pair of Barn Owls showed really well at one of the old windows, they were very vocal and flighty (inside the building). I am hoping that these birds prove to be a breeding pair but that won't be confirmed for another few weeks yet when Col and I do our next round of box checking.

Quite a short post this one folks and there won't be another one for around another week because I am off to Scotland! My exact destination is North Uist which is up in the western isles, see arrow on below image. It is going to be a good drive too, 536 miles from Leicester to the ferry which should take around ten hours to drive, and that is if we don't stop!

During my trip I will be in the good company of Adey, one of my birding/photography buddies. We both visited Scotland together a couple of years ago where we visited the isle of Mull in pursuit of Short Eared Owls, sadly we didn't even see a single bird! Again this year our main species target is the Short Eared Owl, surely this time we'll see a bird or two? 

Catch up again soon..............