Month off to a flyer!!!!

What a super start to the month, two more Little Owl territories located tonight that now takes my overall tally to 122! I was checking out site No 18 over at Hinckley, only 1 bird heard calling there (of unknown age), after a good half hours wait I decided that it wasn't going to show for any photo's so it was time to move on. I'd only driven for a few minutes down the lane when I chanced upon another superb looking area that just oozed owls! Open fields/paddocks, boarded by a nice thick hedgerow, loads of low fence posts and a couple of very nice looking mature Ash trees. I sat quietly giving the general area the once over when I heard an owl calling from beyond the hedgerow, I couldn't believe my luck! A 30 minute wait then produced the goods as it showed. No images were possible due to the dam branches in the way but hey ho another new site!

During my rounds I stopped off at Site No 22 near to Whetstone Gorse, although very distant both adults were out and sitting in the nest tree getting some late evening sun. Can you see them both in this image?  

I then moved over to the adjacent paddock at site No 22 where the juvs are normally located and true to form they were there again, all 3 of them! The light by now was pretty crappy but I did managed this one distant effort of one of the juvs sitting in a xmas tree.

The next new site (No 122) was located at Whetstone Gorse West, here I was driving along a real narrow lane when an owl landed on top of a telegraph pole 20 yards in front of me. It was calling out loud and making a right old racket, then to my astonishment it was joined by a second bird!, both adults. They then vanished as quick as they had appeared, I've previously checked this area time and time again and nothing, just goes to show how secretive they really can be.

Not a bad evenings owling, with birds also being seen at site  96 x 1, site 39 x 1 and site 53 x 2 making a tally of 13, hope that number doesn't prove to be unlucky!!!!!!

Back to Owling!

Went out tonight with my good friend John to check on a couple of little owl boxes that he helped me put up earlier in the year. Although he knew the good news that two of the boxes were occupied it was the first time he had been really up close and personal with a little owl.

As advised by Emily I am now working within the BTO's protocol set out for the nest site monitoring, I will be keeping records of all visits and and logging any developments, after the breeding season all my info will be collated and sent to the BTO via Emily.

The owls at both nest box sites are doing really well and the hen birds are sitting tight whilst performing their incubation duties. The male birds are working even harder and are busy out hunting most of the day as they have to keep the hen bird fed because she does not leave the nest until the eggs have hatched. 

Below is an image of the hen bird at the first site we visited, it is absolutely amazing how they don't move even when the inspection door has been opened. As this bird was sitting so tight I decided not to move her to do an egg count, it will just have to be a surprise on how many eggs she has when they hatch!

At the second site the hen bird was off her eggs and in the far corner of the box (no image possible) but this was only because she was busy devouring a mouse that the male bird had taken in to her. On the last visit with Emily these birds had three eggs and as that was over a week ago so we can assume no more will be laid.

Towards the end of the month all the eggs should have hatched, just after this time I will be returning with Andy Smith from The Charnwood Ringing Group to ring the juveniles, so fingers crossed all goes well until then?

TON UP!!!!!!!!!!!

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!

Barn Surprise!!!

Yesterday whilst owl and about I spent my time checking up on my 21 little owl boxes to see if any had new residents. Unfortunately it was the same story at most sites, not many birds showing so no confirmation either way as yet! However, I have mentioned in a previous post there had been some activity in one box over at Smoke Hall (site 98), both birds were again seen today very near to the nest box and after further enquiries further evidence was found inside the box.......an owl pellet!  I will keep a close but distant vigil at this site to see if nature takes it coarse......fingers crossed. 

Later in the day I visited my box at Port Hill (site 96) and after some 30 minutes of waiting not 1 but 2 little owls were seen coming out of the box!!! This is fantastic news and another site I will be keeping a close eye on over the next few weeks, hopefully an image will follow of the birds going in/out of the box very soon?

Towards late afternoon I was investigating another little owl site that I hadn't been to for some time. This is in an old barn and again no little owls were seen, but what I did see was a real surprise. A pair of barn owls!!!!!! I observed them from no further than 20 feet away! They were sitting together day roosting on a platform, they seemed to be having a good doze and judging by the amount of pellets on the floor (dozens and dozens) they had been using the site for some time, maybe this is now this years selected breeding site.....fingers crossed, again! 

A further note to add to the day was mating taking place at 3 little owl sites, spring is now well and truly underway.

Boxing Clever!

Out again today putting up more owl boxes with assistance from my old mate Ronny Hawkins, we managed a very healthy 6 taking the overall tally to 17. Its the 2nd time Ron has been out helping me and we learnt from last time and worked a lot smarter today. If I can keep this rate up it looks promising that I will meet my target date for all the boxes to be up by the end of Feb, I think I have still have enough timber to make another 5 boxes taking the total to 22.

   

Both these images were taken at one of my new sites and are the best images I have managed so far of these particular birds. The new hide (land rover) assisted as it enabled us to slowly drive right upto the tree they were in without spooking them, for some reason at this site (and others for that matter) I have found little owls really don't seem to be bothered by the close presence of vehicles??? We were then treated to some reasonable close views for a good 5 minutes or so before they were off.

During the day we saw a total of 6 different owls and heard 1 other to make a day total of 7. 

Site 96, South Wigston - Port Hill

Oh yes, get in there........No 96!

Went out early today for an hour or so before work, I had been given a firsthand report of a little owl sighting by a very nice lady I met (Eileen Carter) at a recent LROS meeting. I previously knew nothing of the owls at this site although I knew of two others very close by! I much prefer to find new sites myself without any help but beings I am so near to the BIG 100 SITES I had to follow it up. Today was my third visit to see if I too could locate them, I arrived before first light, parked up near to the suggested tree and waited, nothing doing after 20 minutes so I decided to try the call-back system (to play a recording of a little owl call to see if a reaction reply call could be prompted) nothing doing on that score either. This was prooving to be another wasted journey and was about to leave when a fluttering silhouette caught my eye in another tree a good 50 yards or so further into the field, I locked my binoculars onto the small black shape and BINGO!!!!! Come on in Little owl No 96......get in there!!!! The single bird then flew further away from me into another tree..........Hold on...........he had joined his mate, there was now two birds...........RESULT!!!!

First sighting & first image of the single owl in the nearer tree.

Site 96, South Wigston - Port Hill.

Image of the pair in the further tree, I assure the sceptics out there (if there are any?) that the two little black shapes in the centre of the image are deffo little owls............honestly! I will of course be returning to try and get a little closer in some better light for some much improved images.......watch this space!