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 Day With The Plumber

Whoopee a couple of days off work!!!! Today (Tuesday) will be spent doing a bit of crimbo shopping and DIY.....brilliant!!!! But yesterday was my day and I was going to do what I wanted! Owling was of course on the agenda, but where and with whom?

I have recently been exchanging emails and text messages with an old mate Ben Harrold who I first met a couple of years ago whilst out at a Short Eared Owl site in Northamptonshire. Ben, or......."Ben The Plumber" as he is better known to his birding circles friends is renowned for his excellent images he regular posts on Birdguides.  

Ben has been asking for a while now if he could accompany me during one of my days out "Owling" to see if he could improve on his own owl images. Now as I was off work yesterday it was the perfect opportunity for us to catch up and hopefully see some owls, there was only one snag......he was car less! Unperturbed I offered to go over and pick him up and then take him out.

The as we drove off from Ben's house we passed a very aptly name public house " The Barn Owl"........the omens looked good!!!

On arriving back at my patch it seemed the lucky omen of earlier seemed to be going against us, the weather was abysmal, foggy, rainy and very cold......not good for seeing owls!

However, during the day we went from site to site and eventually as the weather improved slightly as did seeing a few owls, Ben did managed a few images of the closer birds.

I only managed to photograph two owls during the day, this one at Whetstone at site No 32, a little distant but good to see as they have been keeping a real low profile just recently.

The second image of the day that I managed was at site No 88 near to Enderby, we had some really close and extended views and I am very pleased with the outcome.

All in all we saw 10 birds at 7 different sites, not a great return but not bad considering the awful conditions. Ben managed a few more images than me and hopefully these will be posted later today (Tuesday Dec 14th). You too can see how Ben's images turned out by logging onto Birdguides and then onto the photo page which is called "IRIS" or take the short cut by following this link..... BIRDGUIDES.

Moving Back In!

I have now collated a monthly list of all my sightings by site No's and it is helping me to easily identify where my searches should be focused in order not to overlook any particular site and to keep tabs on previous sightings.

What became apparent after studying at the chart was the lack of sightings at 5 local sites that are all clustered together near to Lubbesthorpe, nothing at 3 of them since March (No's 25, 29 & 86), 1 since May (No 88) and (No 26) none at all this year!! So once I was armed with this info it helped me decide where I went last night.........Lubbesthorpe.

Monthly sighting chart, double click for larger view.

Unfortunately no owls were either seen or heard at 3 of the sites but the good news is 2 of them did produced owls, at site No 88 1 bird was seen flying between two trees (too distant for an image) and also 1 bird at site No 29. This was a particular nice observation because when I went to check the nest site out back in the breeding season I had a shock as it contained 4 Jackdaw eggs!!!! The Jackdaws have since gone and the Little Owls are back..........a welcome return!!!!

Little Owl No 29, perched on top of the nest entrance.

Nearly Out Foxed!

Today it was something a little different from owls, my mate Richard Pegler had recently discovered a foxes den that had a couple of cubs! He asked if I would be interested in coming over to have a look....... how could I refuse.

We arrived mid morning and I set up my hide about 40 yards away and waited for the cubs to show. In all I was in the hide for about 2 and a half hours and during this time only one cub emerged and that was for a maximum 30 seconds. For some reason the image stabilisation didn't work and most of the images were blurred, below are four of the better images that I managed to salvage, enjoy........

After the foxes we had a trip around some of Richards little owl sites, we saw 3 owls at 3 different sites, presumably all male birds. He like me is going to be very busy soon when all the owlets emerge from the nest holes........can't wait! Many thanks Richard, I really enjoyed myself.

Finally an unusual little owl images to finish with that I took yesterday and didn't get time to process.

Bombing Owl!

Made a return visit this evening to new site 106 that was located last night when I was out with Tony, it took a good half an hour chatting with the landowner before permission was granted for a quick venture into the potential nest tree field. I settled down a good 40 yards or so away and started a systematic scan of the tree. It didn't take long before the little owl was located and a couple of quick images were taken. It wasn't until I viewed the images that I realised there was actually a pair.......what a result!!!!

Site 106 - Church Spinney - Kirkby Mallory

The views weren't great as they remained quite high up in the tree and often behind the branches and twigs but I did managed this unusual image of one of the birds dropping to a lower limb.

Dive bomber!

Once my allotted time at this site had expired it was time to move on............but where to??? As I hadn't seen the owls over at site 88 and it was local it was an easy choice. The owls at this site are tough to see as the nest tree is "an island" and very difficult to approach without being spotted. I decided that once I got to the site a tactic of keeping my distance was to be employed......and it paid off!!! After a bit of patience the little blighter was located crouching down behind a broken off limb. He obviously thought I couldn't see him but the picture below tells a different story! 

It wasn't long before the sun started to set, now this could be an opportunity to get that image that I have been so desperate to capture, little owl in the late evening golden glow (yeah the one that I failed at so successfully a couple of nights ago!) Although the shadows didn't help and I didn't actually nail the golden glow I was after, never the less I was well pleased with my final result of a near miss!

 Site 88 - The Park - Enderby. Golden glow..........nearly!

Time was now pressing on so it was a quick drive over to Countesthorpe to pick up my mate John, we had arranged a late visit to "owl avenue". We were well rewarded with out wait into the near dark hours with some excellent views of a superb pair of barn owls..............oh and a single  little owl hunting.

Tomorrow fox cubs are on the agenda, watch this space............ 

Owl N about - 17th Jan 2010

Finally some half decent weather today, I was hopeful it would encourage a few of the local owls out for good viewing and photo opportunities, how wrong I was there! Of the 20 or so sites I visited, sighting (and brief ones at that) were only made at 5 sites. This was a really poor return compared to similar weather conditions before xmas, has the cold snap taken its toll on the local little owl population??? Only time will tell!

Todays sites where owls were observed;

1. 
   
   Site 29 Lubbesthorpe - 2 birds
2. 
   
   Site 88 Enderby - 1 bird
3. 
   
   Site 91 - Kilby Bridge- 1 bird
4. 
   
   Site 53 - Countesthorpe - 1 bird
5. 
   
   Site 60 - Willoughby - 1 bird

I did however manage to get some images (below) of birds yet to grace this blog.

Where's owley?

This guy took some finding this morning, I heard him call but just

couldn't locate him....I did eventually..............can you see him?

   Site 29, Lubbesthorpe - Old Warren Farm

 

 

This was one of two birds at this site today, unlike the first bird which took to the wing as soon as I got out of my car this one was quite confiding.

Site 88, Enderby - Enderby Estate

Anyone for a game of hide and seek?

Site 91, Kilby Bridge - Wayside Farm