Not much time!

With the darker nights drawing in there is not much time left after work to get out there and see many owls, with this in mind I made sure I had my camera with me today as I knew when I had finished work I would be passing by a couple of known sites.

It was late in the day when I passed site 16, the light levels were poor but my good fortune was in, one of the resident Little Owls was sitting at the nest hole.

The next site that I had my fingers crossed for was site No 101 which is only 400 metres from my house, I look in the tree nearly every day but they have eluded me for the last couple of months.........until today!

I pulled the car up in a verge on the opposite side of the road and gave the tree the usual once over, nothing showing again! Then just as I was about to pull away I spotted him, hiding behind some leaves.

A few moments later he dropped down onto a lower limb and gave me a better photo opportunity, not the best image of this bird I've ever had but it was good to see they are still hanging around.

I think for the next few months my photo opportunities of the owls are going to be limited to the weekends when I can get out in better light levels, that is unless I take my camera to work again!

On a roll!

A late trip out tonight again proved very successful, on my quick tour around the Peatling Magna area Little Owls were seen at site No 16, 1 bird and site No 28, 1 bird heard, not bad I thought considering I was having a lazy night and doing all this from my car! As the light was drawing in I decided to call in at "owl avenue" on my way home to see which species.....if any were owl n about. 

About a mile before I got there I noticed a "typical Little Owl blob" in a roadside Ash tree, and in an area I hadn't seen one before. I pulled up and locked the bino's straight onto the blob before it disappeared, and yes yes yes.......it was an owl and a new site 123.

A characteristic blob that stands out against the "light" evening sky, similar sights like this have resulted in at least 50 of my new sites being located,  below left of the bird is the nest entrance.

Due to the time taken at the new Little Owl site I arrived later than planned at owl avenue and Little Owl site No 68. Anyhow not to be perturbed I pulled up, opened the windows and listened. First to show was a male Tawny Owl calling from the tree to my right, next was a Barn Owl that crossed in front of me hawking along the high dry grass. I'd about given up on the Little Owls showing when one appeared right in front of me on a road side fence post, sadly it was far to dark for any images........or was it??????

I turned on the car headlights to get a better view, it wasn't bothered an iota, in fact it continued to drop down onto the road, pick up a beetle or bug and return to its post. Whilst it did this I thought what the hell lets try and get an image, and this was the result. Through the (dirty) car windscreen, illuminated by the headlights, manual focusing and a shutter speed of 1 second, by no means a great image but something a little different!!!!

Two out two in!

 A very early start to work today, I decided to take my camera with me just in case............

At around 6.30am I drove by site No 16 and a brace of owls were showing, after further inspection both the owls were confirmed to be adults, sadly still no evidence of any offspring so far this year. Never the less, it was still good to see them as this was the first sighting of both birds at the same time for a good few months.

I only managed an image of one of the owls, pretty poor quality though as it was taken from a considerable distance in poor light.

 

On my return journey I stopped off at around 5.30pm at site No 97 near to Wistow, here I encountered a pair of juveniles sitting out on the outer limbs of the nest tree, and in reasonable light conditions, too good a chance to miss!!!

A much better quality image of a pair of very amenable Little Owls!

Shooting in the dark!

After my "chick chase" (see previous posting) I found myself driving home past site 16, sadly no chicks showing here yet but one of the parent owls was out having a right good old flutter around. Although the sun had set (9.45pm) and the light levels were extremely poor I thought I would chance my arm and see if it was possible to get some images? Shooting at an ISO of 1600 and shutter speeds in the region of a 1/40th of a second most of the images were blurred or too dark but here are a few that I thought were ok, as usual double click on any image for a larger and more detailed version.

 A bit of an "arty" image although the owl is difficult to spot, can you see him?

What became apparent after a while was the owl was "on the feed" I watched him pluck several moths from the air in true aerobatic style (something I have only witnessed on one previous occasion).

The next item of prey to be seized upon were a few black beetles taken from the ground, once caught he made his way back into the nest hole, mmmmmmmmm maybe to the chicks????? In this image you can just make out one of the caught beetles in the right claw.

   

All the evidence points to chicks in the nest, I will be visiting again very soon...........

Arty Farty!

Over the last two days I have been going about my normal owling business only this time I was in the good company of Andy Rouse the well know wildlife photographer. We had loads of plans, loads of sites to visit and loads and loads of Little Owls to photograph............well that was the plan!!! The weather has been just abysmal and it hardly stopped raining for the two days he was with me. To make the most of the daylight hours (what day light?) we had two early starts and staked out numerous locations.

Below are a few of the images I managed (as usual double click on it for greater detail), not a lot to show considering the amount of time we spent, but not too bad when you take into account the constant rain and very low light levels. We had some very quiet periods when the owls just did not show, so this gave me plenty of opportunity to discuss with Andy some of the photo techniques he employs which results in some stunning images.

Among all the tips and advice he gave me one of the best was to try and achieve an atmospheric image that shows not only the owl but the natural surroundings it lives in too. Given the right situation, conditions and some accommodating owls I will be trying this new technique out in the future.

My first attempt at an "atmospheric image" normally I would have cropped this image so it would have shown just the owl and hardly any thing else. Here we can see (if you look hard enough) the owl just emerging from its nest entrance with some superb tree detail.

The same bird a split second or so late, I've had to crop out some really horrible areas of the image and thus the composition is not quite right but I think it works.................nearly???

The next site we visited is a bird and an setting I have taken on many previous occasions, only this time I have tried to be a little bit more "arty" by allowing the image to "breath" a bit. Can you see the owl?

Another attempt at being a little more artistic, nicely posed owl and some nice detail on the tree trunk and nothing else that is distracting to the eye!

This next image shows a nice natural "green" habitat that I particually like that shows off the bird well, but due to the foreground branches I had to crop it more that I would have liked. Obviously the horrible grey sky on the right hand side is really distracting to the eye and completely spoils the image.

This next image was taken from quite a considerable distance and I would normally have cropped right into the bird making it hardly usable, but because I haven't been as severe as normal with the cropping it makes the image a little more usable.

Finally this last image shows I thought a little more about my positioning and got a nice composition of the Little Owl and on an interesting branch..........but what spoils it is the horrid gap in the background trees that shows the sky, doooohhhhh!!!! 

It was a real experience and privilege spending some time with Andy and hopefully his advice will pay dividends for me in the future??...........Cheers Andy.

Owl Central

Went owl n about again tonight but a bit later than normal, it was the setting sun that got my juices flowing. It just lured me out with the possibility of some nice evening images with that late golden glow, something I hadn't managed before!

I was pretty pleased with the results but unfortunately by the time I got to my chosen site that lovely golden glow had faded.........thanks to a really inconsiderate bank of clouds that blocked the light!

 A bit of wing stretching, shame he wasn't looking my way!

Once it got too dark for any more images I headed back home along a particular back lane (now known as owl avenue) not too far from home and within a half mile stretch I either saw or heard no fewer than five different little owls, three tawny owls and a single barn owl. Now you wouldn't want to be a vole in this location would you!!!! 

En route to 75.

Today found me being escorted by Richard Pegler, another photographer and birding supremo from the north west of the county. Richard and I had a day out owling on my patch at the back end of last year and since then he too has also got the little owl bug! He has been doggedly searching around the area where he lives and now has a very creditable portfolio of 9 unique little owl sites, you can catch up with Richard, his owls and many other bird related items at Peglerbirding. 

Anyway, today was a little different rather than go owling all day we decided to spend the morning over at Eyebrook reservoir to see if the ospreys had returned back after their long migration from Africa. 

On the way over to Eyebrook Richard was telling me he hadn't seen a little owl for a few weeks so I made a slight detour to see if my favourite owl "scabby" was showing (see my very 1st post). As we pulled up he was there, sitting at the nest hole entrance posing for the cameras!

Scabby the owl, Site 16, Kilby - Newstead Farm.

As we drove down the approach lane to Eyebrook I pulled over and pointed out to Richard that the isolated oak tree in the field was home to a pair of little owls, after a bit of straining we picked out the pair in the tree.  

2 little owls, can you see them?

When we finally arrived at the reservoir we parked up at the bridge and started to survey the surrounding area, there wasn't much showing (not a single wader of any description ) this wasn't surprising though as after the recent heavy rain the Eyebrook was so heavily swollen it had covered the mudflats.

 

Eyebrook Reservoir from the bridge (into the sun!). 

With nothing of any note showing in or around the waters edge we turned to the sky, this is where all the action was! Within a minute or two we picked up several buzzards, a red kite and our target for the morning, a returning osprey. As the image below shows it was quite distant but still good to see.

A long distant traveller.

Eventually we lost sight of the osprey so we moved along the reservoir to the Stoke Dry car park, here we bumped into John Turner (whom I went out with last weekend). John had earlier had some very good views of the osprey and you can see his excellent picture by clicking on this link birdguides.

After a good morning watching the raptors at Eyebrook it was now back down to business of little owls on my local patch. I wanted to take Richard over to my site 75 as the pair there had been showing really well recently. On route we stopped off at site 31, Crossways Farm. Because I was driving I wasn't able to take any images here but I managed to position the landrover in such a way Richard was able to capture some of the action, click here to see  Peglerbirding.

Still on our way to site 75 we went by site 53, here we pulled over and had some distant views of the little owl feeding on the ground.

Site 53, Countesthorpe - Soars Lodge Farm - Site B.

We finally arrived at site 75 and true to form both of the resident owls were located with-in minutes. Here we both managed to get some images of the very showy male bird.

Show off.

Just before we departed the male owl joined his partner and again some pleasing images were obtained.

Site 75, Peatling Parva - Preistlands

Not a bad day at all, I think the final tally was; Little Owl - 10, Red Kite - 1, Buzzard 11, a few Kestrels and a single Osprey.

Owl and about 7/3/10

The light levels this morning were absolutely fabulous for photography, so it was out to a few local sites to see what was about. Although very bright and sunny it was bloody cold, thank goodness I had my Benny hat with me!

First port of call was Crossways Farm at Whetstone, after observing the site for 10 minutes or so two birds were located feeding in the bottom of the hedgerow, the strength and direction of the light was perfect for some fast shutter speeds (my lens is a bit slow unless the light is very very good), so I decided to sit it out in Benson (my pet name for my Landover) and attack my nemesis...............owls in flight!

Site 31, Whetstone - Crossways Farm

After a short wait the birds accepted my presence and started to feed in the pasture, this one was presumably looking for beetles and grubs.

Site 31, Whetstone - Crossways Farm

I had one opportunity to nail the flight shot and this was the result, I'm pretty pleased with it although I had to crop the image quite a bit due to the distance I was from the bird, this has obviously resulted in a reduction in quality (oh for a fast canon lens).

Not sure if it is just a Leicestershire phenomenon but seemingly from nowhere the buzzard has had a remarkable increase in its numbers recently. Only a decade or so ago if I saw one it would have been a real one off and a talking point for the rest of the day, nowadays if you venture out into the countryside it is virtually impossible not to see one. However, as popular as they are I am finding them difficult so and so's to get a decent image of. So when I pulled up at a little owl site at Kilby today I couldn't resist capturing an image of this handsome guy.

After the buzzard had buzzed off it was back down to the business of little owls, I drove right upto the nest tree, (of which incidentally I have recently put up a nest box) and bingo a pair was in residence capturing the morning sun right next to my box!!! This image (below) was captured before they decided I had ventured too close and off they went!

Site 91, Kilby - Wayside Farm

The next location was where "scabby the owl" could be found (see my very first post) but to my surprise he wasn't around, but his other half was!! As you can see (below) she was at the nest hole entrance watching me!!!!

Site 16, Kilby - Newstead Farm

Next stop was Rose Farm site A, although a little obscured by the branches the resident bachelor owl was located sunning himself in the apple tree.

Site 37, Countesthorpe - Rose Farm Site A

On my back I decided to call in again at Crossway Farm to try and nail that "in flight" shot that I am so desperate for. This time both birds were located in the nest tree cuddled together and seemingly happy to pose for the lens albeit they were not flying around though!

Site 31, Whetstone - Crossways Farm

Just as I was pulling away one of the birds flew down onto one of the fence posts and stayed there long enough for me to get this final shot of the day.

Site 31, Whetstone - Crossways Farm

An excellent couple of hours owling where 6 birds were seen at 4 different sites and some images that I am well pleased with.

Crazy night 2

Last night I managed to see owls at 7 out of 8 local sites that I visited, a really good return and the most owls I have seen in such a short space of time. I decided to go for it again tonight to see if lightning would strike twice? I decided that none of last night’s sites would be re-visited so some planning was required; I needed to be smart and plan a route that would allow me to visit as many sites as possible before the light goes.

First up was the two sites just north of Countesthorpe, Rose Farm site A & B, both produced birds in no time at all but only site B allowed a photo (below), sitting at its nest entrance sunning itself.

Site 39, Countesthorpe - Rose Farm site B

Next stop was Wayside Farm at Kilby Bridge; after 30 seconds of arriving a single little owl was spotted sunning itself in a nearby ash tree, due to the fact that the sun was shining at me from behind the bird only a silhouette could be seen no photo was possible!

Pushing on the next planned stop was my new site over at Wistow, upon arrival I parked next to what I believe will be this summer’s nest tree and bingo!!!! A single bird was perched high above me and the same as the previously seen birds of today, it was making the most of the low evening sun. Don't know if you agree but this little chap seems to have a real angry look about him!

Site 97, Wistow - Wain Bridge (NO NOT THE JOHN TERRY WAYNE BRIDGE!!)

Things were looking good, a 100% success rate at four sites in only 30 minutes, the next site could spoil all that though, my last few visits had drew blanks and I was wondering if the birds had moved on? All my fears were soon dismissed as soon as I pulled up, a single bird was sitting on top of a sawn off tree trunk getting some sun..........result!!!

                                        

Site 1, Carlton Curlieu - Marks Plantation

The sun was now starting to set and the light fading fast, I had to move on to the next site pretty sharpish otherwise yesterdays target would not be beaten. After 5 minutes of driving I pulled up at the next site and nothing!!!! Through desperation I tried playing my little owl contact call on my mobile phone and almost instantly there was an inquiring pair of heads at the nest entrance.

Site 19, Fleckney - Lyndon Lodge Farm

My favourite site was the next on the route, and true to form no time was wasted here as "scabby" was waiting for me on one of his posts. A 30 second pit stop (photo) and I was off again to the next site.

Site 16, Arnesby - Newstead Farm

Next stop was site 53 back at Countesthorpe, a single bird was seen sitting on top of a pollard willow but unfortunately it was too distant for any images! Due to how dark it was now getting I had time for one more site and what better than the morphing owl site (see post 6th Jan 2010). Upon arrival I was expecting to see an owl of some type sitting at the hole entrance but nothing? I sat and waited for 20 minutes until it was only just possible to see but no owl, I think I must have missed it by seconds!!

To sum up it was another great night for little owl viewing, I believe the settled weather and the evening sun was the recipe for them to be dripping out of the trees...........8 out of 9 aint bad!!!

Anything for the weekend sir?

On the way home  from work tonight I stopped off at two sites on the A5199, luckily enough both sites produce good views of little owls, and luckily enough I had the camera with me for a couple of record shots. Hopefully if this slightly warmer weather hangs around for the weekend some better opportunities for improved images will be possible, especially as I'm planning to try out my new hide (more on that later!).

Site 91, Kilby - Wayside Farm

Site 16, Kilby - Newstead Farm

Hello World!!!!!

Over the last couple of months I have had the great pleasure of meeting some really nice blokes whilst out pursuing my first birding love (drum roll please).......THE LITTLE OWL.

It was a couple of these guys who encourage me to start this blog to help keep them up to date with my continued drive and desire to locate, record and photograph a targeted 100 different little owl sites local to where I live in south leicestershire.

Well as this is my first posting I'm not quite sure how it is going to pan out but in time I will hopefully be able to put you in the picture of where I am with my quest for the 100. But without further ado I think it only appropriate for me to introduce to you my very favourite little owl 'scabby'. He's a cracking male bird and due to the direction work sends me he and I regularly 'eyeball' one and other over the hedgerow. He can be seen here posing on the log I gave him for xmas!

Well that's it for this posting...........over time I will explain how it all started.