Nipped out!

Not much time for owling on Saturday, a very tasty hangover put paid to my planned early start, then I had an appointment down the city in the afternoon to watch the football, not much time left for anything else then? It's amazing just how quick a day can flash by and nothing  seems to get done, however, as busy as I was I did still managed a quick visit out to check out three local sites where I made my first sighting of the year.

Little Owl site No 88. 

At my site No 86 a bird was located sitting on some straw bales in a barn, I think it was hunting for mice? It was pretty dark in there which resulted in quite a noisy image (grainy in the shadow areas) because of the need to use a high ISO setting.

My site No 10 also yielded a first sighting for the year, a pair where out here but only one of them came close enough for a quick snap.

Goodness knows how many owls I could see in a whole day if I dedicated the time to doing it? Without the hangover of course, so not much chance there then because nearly every weekend is spent recovering from one!!! 

A Crazy hour!

After a really poor wet and virtually owl free weekend this evening was crazy hour!!! All the owls must have let the late evening sun go to their heads and decided to show themselves off with aplomb!! I just had time to get around eight different sites before the light beat me and a whopping seven produced the goods.

Site 25, Lubbesthorpe - New House Farm

A really rubbish image that was taken at some considerable distance but take a closer look and what do you see??? Yep thats right a little owl inspecting one of my nest boxes!!!

Next stop was just down the road from the previous site and although I have had plenty of sightings of owls here I have never managed an image before...........until now!!!! Here one of the birds appeared out of the old dovecote and posed for me in the evening sun.

Site 86, Lubbesthorpe - Abbey Farm

The next stop was Crossways Farm at Whetstone but surprisingly no owls were showing there today. Soldiering on the next two locations were at Gorse Fishery sites A & B, both produce good distant views but sadly no images were possible.

Then it was down a back lane to Sambury Farm, a single bird here was making quite a fuss calling out across the meadow, although vocal he wasn't allowing particular good views of himself though! 

Site 32, Peatling Magna - Sambury Farm

By now the light was really going so it was a quick dash over to Peatling where I have two sites that are quite close together. My luck was holding out as both sites yielded views of the resident owls albeit image quality was now suffering due to the really poor light levels.

Site 68, Peatling Magna - Lodge Farm A.

Site 58, Peatling Magna - Lower Brookhill Farm

A really enjoyable hour or so whistle stop tour of a few of my local sites which produced the most owls I have ever seen in such a short space of time, hope its a sign of things to come this summer!!!!!