A Pair Of Pairs!

A bit of good news from earlier in the week, new Little Owl site 139 was located whilst driving home from the office. The news comes late as I am still having problems with my PC and I have had to revert to using another and the image processing and blogging has proved to be a dreadfully laborious task.

The owl in question was first noticed flying low down in a roadside ditch, I turned around and soon re-located it sitting top side of a hedgerow. A bit of a fidgety bird, it just wouldn't settle long enough for me to grab a record shot. However, I persevered and eventually nailed an image when it finally settled in a roadside tree.

Site No 139, nestled down nicely in a tree trunk crevice.

This Kestrel offered some nice views whilst watching the owl.

Not a lot to report from today's venture out in terms of the local owls, the awful weather conditions have really put a dampener on things and only two different pairs were prepared to show themselves.

The first pair were out braving the elements at Site No 92.

The resident pair also showed at Site No 34, amoung the snow showers.





Todays intention wasn't really to see owls, good job really!!! It was to survey some new areas that hopefully have the potential for Barn Owls and boxes, and yes some excellent areas were noted. And what was even more encouraging was evidence of roosting owls was found in a couple of old barns in the form of some  pellets!....... I guess it won't be long before I have a box or two up in this area!!!!

Watching The World Go By.

Its been ages since I did some "normal" birding so with that thought in mind I decided to pop over to "Rids Patch" late this afternoon so see if anything interesting had dropped in. Upon approaching the first scrape I managed 2 new site ticks in the form of a Black Headed Gull & Lesser Black Backed Gull, common birds I know but the first sightings I have made since I set myself the challenge of seeing 75 different species in 12 months.

2 new Gulls for the patch.

Although a very poor image it was a pleasing sight to see 12 Snipe busily feeding on the second scrape. They did however have to keep dodging the presence of a low fly over Buzzard who scattered them on two occasions.

Feeding Snipe

Nothing much more of note was seen apart from another 2 patch ticks in the form of Collard Dove & Wren taking my overall tally to 72. At this rate it shouldn't be too difficult to reach my target of 75 as long as I don't leave it so long until my next visit!

On the way home I stopped off at Gilmorton and caught with some Little Owls that I hadn't seen for quite sometime. At site No 107 a single bird was sitting out on a haystack just watching the world go by!

I then did a drive by at site No 92 and this juvenile was posing nicely near the entrance to the nest hole.

Also finished making the final 7 Little Owl nest boxes this morning, but I'm holding back on painting them until my "colour poll" has finished, (top right of this blog) if you haven't yet voted please do so by clicking on your preference and then click on the vote button.............thanks.

Little Owl Ringing

On Monday night just gone I invited some members of the Charnwood Ringers Group over to south Leicestershire to accompany myself and my mate Daz around some of my local Little Owl sites. From previous investigations I knew of 5 easy accessible sites that had "Pullus" in the nest, apparently this is the proper terminology for juveniles still in the nest, you learn something every day.......or so they say!.

The intention was to ring the Pullus, obviously the ringing can only be done by qualified and licenced individuals, hence the Charwood Ringers were in attendance. Each ring has its own unique identity on it and if ever the owl (with the ring on) was encountered again it would help to provide vital information on the birds age and movements.

Here we can see the gathering at the first location not far from Kilby Bridge, we were at my Little Owl site No 91 and the only occupied breeding box this year that had any success. 

We had a real good start to the evening and a bit of good fortune at this site, when the door to the box was opened there were  three owls inside, two youngsters and the adult hen owl.  All three were taken out and placed carefully inside a cotton retaining bag. These were then hung up inside the Landrover, one by one the owls were taken out of the bags, they were checked over, weighed, measured and finally rung. It was quite surprising how calm and struggle free the birds remained at all times.

All the vital statistics were documented, here you can see the adults birds brood patch. Apparently in the breeding season the hen bird loses her lower breast feathers, her veins are then closer to the skin surface which in turn allows her to regulate the eggs temperature whilst conducting her incubating duties....another thing learnt!!!!

Ringing and measuring the adult bird, yes the pliers look quite terrifying, but rest assured they are a precision piece of equipment and cause absolutely no harm to the birds what so ever. The correct way of handling and holding the bird is clearly demonstrated in these next two images.

 Weighing the bird whilst it remained inside the retaining bag.

Studying the data!

 Juvenile little Owl, post ringing and just before being returned safely to the nest box.

The next location we visited was my record breaking seven egg site at Whetstone, site No 31. Good news and bad news here. The bad news was, only four pullus had survived so far, but the good news is they are all very healthy, fighting fit  and very very cute!!!

By now the evening was getting on and the light drawing in so we made a quick dash over to Gilmorton to check out the third location, site No 107. After some slight difficulties with a very tight entrance hole the 3 juveniles were rung and quickly returned.

It was whilst at site 107 I had my first go at ringing, a little awkward at first but I soon got the hang of it............with some expert instruction of course!!!!

Yours truly with my first rung Little Owl, first of many hopefully!

After all was complete at site 107 we drove only a few hundred yards up the road to site 92, here we successfully rung another 3 juveniles. It was now 9.30pm and there was still one more site to do, we made a final dash over to the Broughton Astley/Cosby village boundary and site 35. Here we rung another 3, by the time we had finished it was completely dark but that didn't deter Daz having his first go at ringing, judging by his smile he enjoyed it too!

After all was complete we all retired to the local pub for a very rewarding couple of pints, it was a really enjoyable and very educating evening with a total of 16 Little Owls being rung.

Many thanks to the four members of the ringing group who gave up their time to come and help me.

Charnwood Ringers - L to R, Nigel Judson, Chris Flint, Andy Smith and Neil Hagley.

Variety is the spice of life.

Today I was owl n about very early, by 5.30am I was already at my chosen location (site 92 near Gilmorton)and sitting in my hide awaiting the owls to show. The reason for the early start was.......light!! This nest site is situated underneath a large tree and the canopy leaves it in complete shade for the whole day, apart from an hour or so at sunrise. So it was just a matter of keeping an eye on the weather forecast as to when it was going to be a nice bright start to the day.........and today was the day!!!! 

During the three hours I was there the owls made five visits to the nest site. As you will see from my images a constant supply of food was coming in, and a real variety too. I'm sure if the parent owls keep this up the 3 owlets will soon be out the nest and off.....fingers crossed.

On the first visit they brought in a right old juicy worm, look at the dam length of it, longer than the owl!! 

The second visit it was a moth........I think?

With the third and fourth visits came even more variety in the form of little grubs and caterpillars, buy sadly no images as a very inconsiderate branch was blowing about in the wind and obscured my line of sight.

Then some proper grub was brought in in the shape of a small rodent, not sure if it's a shrew, mouse or vole? But one thing's for sure, it was dead and it was gunna be eaten!!!

A really enjoyable few hours, but sadly the sun soon moved round and the light levels dropped too low to get any more decent images.  

Mouse for tea!

Have been away for the weekend so no chance for any owling, at least not until I got back this evening. Decided to get over to my latest little owl site (No 107) not far from Gilmorton, my intention's.......to try and get my first images of the resident owl(s).

I positioned the landrover not far from the suspect nest tree and watched the potential nest entrance. It wasn't long before I spotted an owl flying around with a mouse in its beak, my suspicions were soon confirmed as it flew to the nest hole and passed the half eaten mouse over a second owl (female) that popped out of the hole..........excellent a pair!!!!!

The male owl was off in a flash, presumably more hunting to do, the female sat at the hole devouring the remnants of the mouse carcass before it disappeared into the hole. It was at this stage I moved the landrover to a more advantageous position that made it easier to see the nest entrance. She then re-emerged with a very bloody face, obviously the mouse had been ripped to bits and fed her chicks.

The lay of the land at this location makes it perfect for owl in flight images, so that's what I am going to attempt very very soon..........watch this space!!!!!!!

Just around the corner from site 107 is site 92,  so beings as I was driving right past the nest tree on my way home I thought it rude not to stop off for a couple of minutes. I only had to wait for 30 seconds before a very obliging and confiding owl offered some cracking close views, it didn't hand around for long though!!!

106 & 107!

Got invited over to Barwell tonight by my mate Tony to investigate a potential little owl site he thinks he has located. Unfortunately no owls were seen but I must admit the site looks very owly. We then moved on to another site I wanted to show Tony that i thought would be idea for his digi-scope set up. We had only been there 10 minutes when the male owl showed in the nest tree, although distant Tony managed some really good images with his scope set on 30 x magnification. 

Whilst Tony was busy taking more images I started to scan a row of willow trees in the opposite direction, I located a little owl sitting very low down on the right hand side of the main trunk. Was this a new site???? I couldn't be sure as it was quite close to the one we were already watching. But my suspicions were soon confirmed when a second owl appeared in the nest tree at the first site that Tony was still watching. BINGO come on in new site 106!!!!!

Site 106 - Church Spinney - Kirkby Mallory

Soon after I made my way back home to pick up the landrover as there was a couple of sites that I wanted to visit that I hadn't been to for a while. My first stop off was a site at Narborough, here the male bird show really well but the shadows under the trees didn't help with the photography.

Site 51 - Flash Farm - Narborough

Next stop was a site over at Gilmorton, again the male bird showed nicely but he would just not come down from his high perch for some better images.

Site 92 - Holt Farm - Gilmorton

The sun was just starting to set so it was time to quickly move on to "owl avenue" I was hoping the barn owls would show again as they did a couple of nights ago. Just as I pulled off there was this horrid rumbling noise! I was full of dread as I knew what it was...........A PUNCTURE!!!!!!! Bloody hell, it was nearly dark and I was in the middle of nowhere. Luckily all the necessary tools were on board (although I had not previously checked they were there!). Whilst I was busily sorting out the spare a guy came by and stopped. He was a mechanic from the local village and he very kindly helped with getting the wheel changed.....what a gent he was!

By now it was too dark to see the barn owls, so home was the only choice. Normally I would have turned right at the bottom of the lane but I turned left as it would be the quicker way home. And what a good gob I did, 400 yards down the lane guess what I chanced upon?.........yep you guessed it, a little owl!!!! He was in a roadside tree balancing on an outer branch overhanging the road, it would have been impossible to miss him!!. They say every cloud has a silver lining and tonight mine was in the form of little owl site No 107, obviously it was too dark for any images, guess where I will be going over the weekend......?

Crack Of Sparrows

Before the delights of another days work I decided to go out really early today!!! The reasoning for this early start (up at the crack of sparrows) was to get some images from a relatively new little owl site over at Gilmorton. Due to its location the best time for photography is early morning whilst the sun is in my favour and on the subject......if it showed?

Site 92, Holt Farm - Gilmorton.

At the nest hole entrance.

I was really pleased with this mornings visit on four counts, firstly the owls showed, secondly these images are the best I have managed from this site (and the sun played its part), thirdly, my suspisions of where the nest entrance was were confirmed as the birds were sitting at it and just inside it, and finally I thought this site only had a single bird  but a pair were sitting snuggled up together when I first approached, sadly though I wasn't able to capture them both together........this time!!