At last, after 617 days since my quest began late yesterday I located my 100th little owl territory, it was purely by accident as well! I decided to have an hour or so up at the Huncote Embankment to see if any of the local raptors and ravens where showing. I stopped to survey the fields way down below me and as I casually panned from left to right a suspiciously looking tree stump caught my eye. With it looking particular owly I gave it the usual once over and to my amazement sitting on top was a little owl taking in the late sun. And even more amazing was the distance involved, a good 250 mts away, I even surprised myself!!!!.
This is the only image I managed and i've had to blow it up some what but if you look right in the centre on top of the nearest small tree stump the owl can be seen. Needless to say with it being such a landmark bird I will be returning very soon to attempt to get closer and get some more creditable images.
Site 100, Huncote - Huncote Bridge
After the elation of my 100th site I made a quick trip down the road to check out one of my nest box sites at South Wigston. After a 10 minute wait I picked out both of the resident owls and boy o boy what a comotion they were making. Oh my word.......they were mating, altough I have seen little owls mating on numerous occasions I had never managed an image because it was always too dark or the birds were just too far away (like the 100th site). But this time the light was ok and although the birds were still a little distant I could deffo grab some of the action.
Site 96, South Wigston - Port Hill
When the action had died down they both flew over to the nest tree to sit quietly near the nest chamber.....ONE OF MY BOXES.....yeah yeah yeah!!!!
All in all not a bad couple of hours, my 100th site, my first mating image and new residents in one of my boxes..........bring on the weekend!
