Hi and welcome to my Blog, my name is Paul Riddle and I live in south Leicestershire, UK. Back in August 2007 my quest began to locate as many local Little Owl territories as possible. The driving force was a reported decline in the uk numbers so I thought I would do my bit and conduct a study in my area. After 7 years and countless hours out in the field I have detected over 200 different sites. With a thirst for a greater understanding of the owls a more comprehensive monitoring and nest box programme then commenced. This also now includes monitoring the local and very sparse population of Barn Owls, please pop back occasionally and catch up with the life and times of my owls and any other wildlife that I come across. I hope you enjoy your visit!!!

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Not much time!

With the darker nights drawing in there is not much time left after work to get out there and see many owls, with this in mind I made sure I had my camera with me today as I knew when I had finished work I would be passing by a couple of known sites.

It was late in the day when I passed site 16, the light levels were poor but my good fortune was in, one of the resident Little Owls was sitting at the nest hole.


The next site that I had my fingers crossed for was site No 101 which is only 400 metres from my house, I look in the tree nearly every day but they have eluded me for the last couple of months.........until today!

I pulled the car up in a verge on the opposite side of the road and gave the tree the usual once over, nothing showing again! Then just as I was about to pull away I spotted him, hiding behind some leaves.


A few moments later he dropped down onto a lower limb and gave me a better photo opportunity, not the best image of this bird I've ever had but it was good to see they are still hanging around.


I think for the next few months my photo opportunities of the owls are going to be limited to the weekends when I can get out in better light levels, that is unless I take my camera to work again!

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