A bit of company!

Part 2 Saturday.......

After I'd warmed up and re-filled my flask it was off out again to another local Little Owl site, No 127. I hadn't seen any owls here since August 2011 so a visit was well overdue.

Permission was gained from the local landowner for me to park up next to the tree where I used to see the owls. Unlike earlier in the morning the skies had now clouded over and the light was rubbish for photography. The wind had also got up so I wasn't very confident of seeing any owls.

I was sitting watching this owless tree when "pop" this chap appeared from nowhere! He'd come to check me out, well not me because I was behind my camo screen it must have been the car that intrigue him?

I sat and kept him company for a couple of hours, in all that time his mate was never seen!

It was a pretty boring visit really, nothing out of the ordinary occurred. He did however burst into some territorial calling for a few seconds, as can be see on this film footage below, just click on the arrow and don't forget to turn your sound up!

The long wait!

Saturday found me returning to new site 127 that I found earlier in the week, it proved quite a long wait but I managed some images in the end.

Both birds were located high up in a willow tree.

Finally one bird gave me some excellent views.

Chilled out owls.

Owl 'n' about again tonight catching up with a few sites that I haven't visited for a while, first stop was site No 6 at Peckleton, a pair were out here and showed well in good light, sadly too distant for good images but it was great to watch them as they went about business looking for grub.

Site No 6, owl No 1 

Site No 6, owl No 2 

A single owl showed well at site No 1, it did absolutely nothing but sit and stare me out, how bizarre!! 

At site No 32 things got very interesting with some super close up views of the resident pair, the first bird to show kept partially hidden behind the main tree trunk, the cheeky little chap! 

Then a second owl showed, this bird emerged from the nest cavity and just sat there staring, it was if it was totally mesmerised by my presence.

It then popped out of the hole and sat on the edge, totally chilled out. What a privilege to be so close, the light could have been better but I wasn't going to waste such a fantastic photo opportunity, I was really pleased with how this image turned out.

The final site of the night near to Peatling Parva didn't offer very good photo opportunities due to the distance involved, hey but who cares when it is another new site! Yes that's right, site No 127!!!!!! I was checking out a very "owly" wind damaged Willow tree and I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted a pair sitting together low down in quite a large hole, the image only shows 1 bird though as by the time I had grabbed the camera 1 had flown off!

 A distant image of the new site/owl.

It's good news for this site though, I introduced myself to the local land owners and they were very hospitable and permission was granted for me to return and hopefully get some better images.......watch this space!