A good day got better!

Saturday morning proved to be a really busy one, I hadn't got all day because I was being picked up by Daz at 12.30pm to go up the footie and watch the mighty Leicester City in a local Derby against near rivals Coventry, boo hiss!.

Therefore I was up and out early, the morning light was good, but it was forecast to get dull and wet so time was of the essence! My main aim was to check as many local sites as possible for confirmation of pairs in residence, any sites that do have pairs then become priority for monitoring during the breeding season.

I started off by visiting the nearest Little Owls to where I live, site No 101. The owls at this site have been very elusive of late, but I needn't of worried as the resident pair were soon located in the nest tree. I was hoping for an opportunity to get an image of both of them together, it didn't happen so I had to make do with just the single bird, below. 

The next destination was my site No 58, only a single owl was noted here but at least he posed for a few seconds on top of a post for an image.

On my travels owls were also noted at my site No's 12, 21 & 22. No images were possible because the owls were too far away and I hadn't got the time to sit and wait for them to get closer.

At my site No 19 really close up views were had of the resident pair as they sat cuddled up together in a crevice, I am very pleased with the image (below ) but more importantly after making dozens of visits this is my first sighting of the owls here since April of last year. 

During the morning I also had some good news, whilst driving across some fields I chanced upon a brand new pair of Little Owls, site No 205! I've driven down this particular track on dozens of previous occasions and never seen an owl here before! I can only assume they are last years juveniles that have paired and set up a new territory? The tree I saw them in is very near to a couple of nest boxes that I erected last year, here's hoping they find one of them suitable and set up home.

Not a bad few hours really, in total 11 owls were seen, 4 pairs and three singles across 7 different sites. To then top off the good morning the afternoon was just as good, City won 2-0.........time to have a celebratory drink I think!

A Blast From The Past!

Due to just having a busy life and the clocks changing recently getting "owl 'n' about" this last week has proved a bit difficult. Therefore I have decided to upload a few of my Little Owl images taken from before this blog was started. Nothing particular impressive but just a small selection from my 1,000's of Little Owl images.

A juvenile from a site 31, very local to where I live, very confiding bird.

Getting a decent flight image has proved extremely difficult, this I suppose is one of my "better" attempts from site No 19.

An adult owl out hunting for its hungry brood, a morsel of a Caterpillar can just be made out in its beak.

Another "flighty" shot, a shame the sun was in the wrong direction!

Another very confiding juvenile, it is sometimes amazing just how close they will let you get!

I just found this image a little comical, the Little Owl will make use of almost anything for a perch!

    

And finally one of my very favourite images, this was the first really close up view I had from my mobile hide.

Hopefully my commitments will ease slightly over the next week allowing me to get back out there and find whats being going on!

Eyeballed at last!

I had a brief run out over to the Kilby area tonight, checked out six Little Owl territories but only saw birds at two sites, No's 19 & 119. The only image I managed was from site No 19, a very relaxed owl!

It was good news at site No 119 though, although a relatively new site this was the first time I have actually seen one of the resident owls here, all previous encounters where "heard only".  Then just as I was departing I heard another Little Owl call from a couple of fields away, only this one was in totally the opposite direction to the one I had been watching, hmmmmmm, could it be a new site???? Watch this space.......................

More breeding success.

I have a number of Little Owl breeding sites this year where so far I have only managed to confirmed 1 juvenile, I'm sure a few re-visits to these sites will throw up a few more juveniles and get the overall tally ticking over, it is just a case of putting in more time and having a bit of luck that they show.

For this reason I re-visited Fleckney tonight to again check out site No 19,  after a good hour stake out it proved fruitless in terms of more juveniles, the tally at this site still remains at 1 for this year, however both adult birds were located roosting in the nest tree and offered some nice photo opportunities in between the showers.

Adult No 1

Adult No 2

Not wanting to waste too much time at just one location I moved on down the road to check out a potential new site near to Wistow. My mate Nigel thought he saw a Little Owl here a few months ago in a roadside tree so what had I got to lose, I had to go and investigate! I parked up where I thought it looked "owly" and waited. During the hour I was there I heard a Little Owl call on several occasions, but no sightings! I'm not going to give this site the honour of being my 111th site............just yet!!!!! I will re-visit very soon and with a bit of luck will make a sighting and then I will spend some time observing the birds habits and movements, this should then enable me to locate the nest tree and maybe............juveniles!!!!

I have another Little Owl site (No 97) not far from where I found myself so it was off to investigate that further, there is a pair of adults here and I have seen them on many occasions but sadly no breeding evidence this year........so far!

I pulled up next to the nest site and after a half an hours wait an adult bird showed right at the very top of the nest tree. After a while it swooped down into an adjacent field and caught a vole. It flew back with the vole and disappeared in the nest tree,  the next thing there was a right commotion .........it was feeding its chicks!

It wasn't long before the greedy little blighters wanted more and showed themselves on the outer limbs of the tree..........and there was three of them!!!!!

Juveniles No 1 & 2. 

Juvenile No 3.

What a result, tonight's observations have pushed this years juvenile tally up nicely to 59 from 28 sites.

Site 108!!!

More checking for signs of Little Owl chicks last night, three more sites produced the goods.

Firstly, there was two out of the nest at site No 75 at Peatling Parva, again I located them by sitting quietly within the vicinity of the nest site and listening. After a twenty minute wait the characteristic "hissing" was heard and they were soon located in a nearby oak tree.

I did managed an image of both Juveniles but unfortunately only this one was usable.

The second location that came up trumps was site No 45 at Willoughby Waterleys. Sadly only one young bird was seen at this site....so far!! But the good news is this was the site that I dismissed at being productive this year as I saw a Weasel was seen coming out of the nest entrance a few weeks ago!

The final location that confirmed breeding success was site No 103 at Willoughby Waterleys, and this turned out to be quite a surprise! Previously I had only ever seen a single Little Owl at this site, again it was seen as I drove up the lane. It was sitting on a broken limb in a Weeping Ash (apparently this type of tree is quite rare!!) it sat motionless as I managed a few images, my best of this bird so far.

 

Just after I bumped into the local land owner (Dave) and we got talking "Little Owls". He had seen the local owls and he was sure there was a pair....and they had young!!!   After a refreshing beer and a tour of his nest boxes (thank you Dave) I was compelled to go back and investigate further. I drove back to the Weeping Ash tree and parked up, by now it was 10.30pm and dark, so seeing the owls was an almost impossibility. So it was a waiting and listening game, and I didn't have to wait long! Out of the silence came a hissing,  once my eyes had become adjusted to the darkness I was able to make out 3 Little Owl silhouettes up high in a tree, 2 adults and 1 juvenile, Dave was right, there was a pair and they had a youngster!!!!

During the evening search I also stopped off at few other sites where only adult birds were seen, I did managed this atmospheric image at site No 19, hopefully chicks here on my next visit? 

And finally, some more good news from last night, Little Owl site No 108 was located, a new site for me over at Gilmorton. He was located sitting in a Pear Tree but I wasn't ready and sadly no photo, that is until my next visit!!!!

As usual, double click on any image for a larger more detailed version.

Meet The Parents.

Last night I was on a Little owl chick hunt, time is now of the essence as soon they will be capable of flying which coincides with them adopting the parents proficiencies as "masters of disguise" and then they are terribly difficult to find.

The only one I managed an image of was this little chap hiding away inside its nest hole at site 19, both parents were in attendance albeit higher up in the tree.

One of the parent owls keeping a very close watch on me!

The second adult owl was also watching my every movement, I was able to walk right underneath it and capture this unusual pose. 

During my dash from site to site chicks were seen in or around the nest at a total of 3 locations, (site 51 x 2, site 22 x 1 and site 19 x 1) this now takes my running tally to 25 chicks seen at 11 different sites. Many many more to come..............fingers crossed!

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.

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!!!

Up Close And Very Personal.

As soon as I got home from work on Wednesday I quickly got changed, grabbed my camera and in no time was off out again ..........although very cold the light levels were fantastic, best it had been at this time of day for sometime. Hopefully I could locate an obliging owl or two squeezing what little warmth they could muster from the sun before it set.

Lydon Lodge, location No 19 a private site over at Fleckney was my chosen destination, one of my favourite little owl locations and I hadn't been there for sometime.

On occasions this site can produce some really close views.........and as it proved this was one of those days!  

After a ten minute wait both birds appeared at the nest entrance.

Enjoying the last remaining rays before sunset.

It wasn't long before the 1st bird was out on its favourite vantage point.

Closely followed by the second onto it's favourite perch.

After a good ten minutes of really close up views and plenty of territorial calling they both moved off along the hedgerow in search of an evening meal. I was really chuffed with the images I managed, the 1st ones of the birds from this site on my blog.