Back in the groove.

Posting processing images is a daunting and laborious enough task a the best of times, but doing it with a pounding and thumping head has proved a real chore this morning. Prior to me going out for a few beers last night I thought I'd spend a couple of hours getting back into the "owling groove" after my 2 week break in Spain.

The chosen location was over at South Wigston, this is a private strip of land where I have 4 different Little Owl territories and I have full access to drive freely about in my Land Rover. 

Owls were seen at two locations, firstly two adult birds showed well at site No 104, as ever double click on any image for a larger more detailed version.

Owl No 1 at site 104.

Owl No 2 at site 104.

As I drove around the area nothing was seen or heard at sites 76 and 77, but when I approached site 105 a single juvenile was located sitting high up against a tree trunk. It then flew down and landed in an old pile of branches, I drove a closer to see what it was up to.

The 1st juvenile sheltering out of the wind and rain.

 Upon closer inspection of the pile of branches a second juvenile was seen.

I drove a little closer and parked up, to my amazement they didn't seemed bothered by my presence as they went about their business grubbing about looking for food.

Over the next half hour or so I got some of the best close up views I've ever had of Little Owls, on occasions I had to zoom my lens out because they were too near and I couldn't fit them into the frame!

Although I am very happy with my image collection from yesterday, it was raining and the light was terrible with shutter speeds around 1/50th of a second (very slow) so I am now off for a return visit, hopefully when I get there the conditions will be in better, fingers crossed!........oh, and my hangover will have gone!!!

Chick Checking!

Saturday morning found me "owl 'n' about" again, accompanied by my good mate, Nigel Spencer, he had come along for the day to seize upon any photo opportunities that may arise during my rounds. Again, my main itinerary was to check out more little Owls sites to see if there had been any more juveniles emerging from the nests. 

Time is really against me now as most juveniles should have fledged and locating them becomes harder and harder. My tally for this year has already outweighed last year (which is good news in itself) however I feel it could have been much higher if I'd of had the time to get around and monitor all of my local sites, let alone the further afield ones!!!

The day wasn't going too good and we hadn't seen much until that is we arrived at a location near to site 104 at South Wigston. The local farmer had recently cut the hay in a field which now allowed access to a previous "no go area".  I wanted to follow this area up as a previous visit had shown signs of Little Owl activity (pellets). As we drove around the perimeter we neared the suspect area and Nigel spotted an owl sitting out on a limb. I shunted the Landrover back and forth until I was in a position to take a record shot of the bird.

Not sure if this bird was from the nearby site 104, or could it be a new location and site 110? Only time and further investigations will reveal all but for now it will be site 104!

 A record shot of the adult owl at site 104......or maybe site 110?????

I then panned the adjacent trees with my binoculars and BINGO, a juvenile was there too!!! Sadly not the best of images but another juvenile for this years tally. We hung around for a while but no second adult bird or any more juveniles were seen.

More breeding success, juvenile at site 104 (110?).

The other bit of juvenile success from the day was at site 21 at Willoughby Waterleys, a single bird was seen at very close quarters flying away from the nest site, sadly now image was possible.

We also visited Site 68 at Peatling Magna, here I located one of the three (of this years already  recorded) juveniles hiding in the nest tree. 

Site 68, coming out of hiding!

During the day we also visited site 22 at Willoughby Waterleys, I wasn't able to get any images of the 2 juveniles owls that were showing but after I dropped Nigel off I popped back to have another go.

No juveniles showed but my wait was rewarded when one of the adults popped out of the nest entrance.

Another image from site 22 with a "bit of golden glow".

What I did learn from the day is "juvenile spotting" or as it is also know "chick checking" is far more productive in the late evening to dusk period, but all things considered it wasn't too bad a day with two more being recorded taking this years tally to 49!

Double click on any image for a larger more detailed version.

Good old Blackies!!!!

Went out really early today, the mission was to get my first images from Little Owl sites 104 & 105. Although I visit these sites regularly and see the owls on maybe every other visit they are always too distant to get any half decent images, until today........... 

I employed different tactics, rather than just sauntering around when the sun is shining (like on previous occasions)  I arrived at the crack of sparrows (dam early to those who have never heard of that expression) and boy oh boy did it pay dividends. Although the light levels were poor at first (slow shutter speeds) and the constant drizzle didn't help, I think the conditions were perfectly suited to the owls. 

First birds to show were at site 105, they were moving about from post to post busily hunting and looking out for a breakfast morsel.   

 Site 105 - Hiding amongst the blossom.

Site 105

 

 Site 105 - A little wet and a little nearer.

After some fantastic views of the pair at site 105 it was time to drive to the other end of the field to see if I could have as much luck at site 104, en-route I passed site 77 but nothing showing there today! 

As I drew up to the suspect nest tree my attention was drawn to a pair of Blackbirds (Mr Hauge, please note bird names are now capitalized ;-) LOL!!!!) that were making a right old racket along the hedgerow. Now Blackbirds don't like Little Owls, justifiably so as there has been many a Blackbird chick that has ended up on the Little Owls menu! So when they do come beak to beak the Blackies mock the owls and constantly harass them until they move on. Well that's exactly what happened today, I drove very slowly to where the pair of Blackbirds were going absolutely ape and what did I locate, you've guessed it................Little Owls.

It wasn't long before the first owl had had enough of the mocking and flew off but the second held fast, it moved around from branch to branch until it too had had enough and off it flew to join its mate. Thanks to the Blackbirds and all the commotion they were making I was able to firstly detect the owls and secondly get relative close which resulted in some nice images.

Site 104 - A quiet moment!

Site 104 - Owl No 1 - Chased off by the Blackbird! Double click image for greater detail.

Site 104 - Owl No 2 - Chased off by the Blackbird! Double click image for greater detail.

What do I know?

Update!

I forgot to mention that whilst out with Emily on Saturday we located a new little owl site (No 104) in a pollarded willow tree. Went back this morning with Gaynor (my wife) to investigate further. Once I'd located the potential nest cavity it was out with the "see snake" to see into the hole which was very long and dark. Even though I used it with the extension lead (taking it to over 2 metres in length) it still wasn't long enough to reach the nest chamber!!!! These little owls sure do burrow like rabbits at times.

Whilst in the roughly the same location my Mrs spotted a potential nest hole high up in a Popular tree, I told her it was a strange location and little owls just wouldn't nest there. She insisted we checked it out so to appease her I got the ladders off the landrover roof and clambered up. I offered the "see snake" into the hole and BINGO, 4 little owl eggs and site 105! 

Oh how smug she was..........and still is!!!!!