Just So!!!!

This morning I was in accompanied by Mr Colin Green, a well respected local Leicestershire birder who has very kindly offered to help me with my Barn Owl nest box project. Today's task was to have a look around some local terrain and select what we believed to be the "most suitable" to site some boxes.

During our rounds we obviously encountered some of my known Little Owl territories, one of which was site No 77 in South Wigston. Here we located "bright eyes", a well known Little Owl to me who as the name suggests has the biggest, brightest and most intensely yellow eyes I have ever seen in a Little Owl. He was located in his nest tree sitting among the spindly branches, again on his own as his mate has not been seen now for over twelve months!

Alone..........Bright Eyes.

Colin and I were having some good close views when all of a sudden he uplifted and flew to a nearby Willow Tree. We followed in the Landrover and to our surprise when we relocated him he wasn't alone! He had got his partner with him, but it wasn't his old mate who I haven't seen for an age, he had a new woman in tow! I immediately recognise her, she was one of this years chicks from the nearby site No 105, and how do I know? Well if you study the two images below I'm sure you will agree it is far more than a coincidence!!

Site No 77, the new woman, along with a damaged left eye!

June 2010, Chick from nearby site No 105 with damaged left eye!

I know the images are not identical she has obviously moulted out into the adult plumage which is darker and more contrasting but I have no doubt it is the same bird! What do you think?

Anyway after all that distraction time ran away with us but we did managed to survey two very suitable sites where in the not too distant future some Barn Owl boxes will be erected.

After Colin had made his way (he was late for his Sunday lunch!) I made the trip over to Great Easton. Another well know birder from the east of the county, Mr John Turner had invited me to accompany him on a vigil to a village called Great Easton, Short Eared Owls were the quarry. They had returned for the winter and had been showing really well on the previous few days.

We parked up adjacent to the area where they had previously been seen hunting and waited for them to show. Whilst we waited we made best of the time chatting and catching up as we hadn't met for a good few months.

Although bitterly cold the time past really quickly and after a couple of hours the expectant crowd had grown from just the two of us to around twenty hopeful observers. John decided to take matters into his own hands and wandered off down the track to see if they were hunting in the out of sight adjacent field.

John had nearly wondered out of sight when the first Short Eared Owl appeared.....typical! He soon made his way back to the posse who were by now well onto the owls.

It was great to eventually see the owls, three in total plus a bonus Barn Owl but due to their late showing the photography was very difficult indeed as the light had almost gone!.

This was my best capture from a pretty bad bunch.

How could you cap such a wonderful day? Well I will tell you how, by finding another Little Owl site on the way home.........that's how! John had given me the info on a potential site at a village called Cranoe, I followed his precise directions to a tee,  but after around 30 minutes nothing was either seen or heard! I gave up and left, then only a few hundred yards out of the village I spotted a suspect blob sitting on top of a barn......LITTLE OWL!!!!! Fantastic site No 135.

The "Blob"

 I have my suspicions on whether or not this owl is from the site John tried to put me onto, never the less I will have to give him the credit........for now!

Today was a superb day, many thanks must go to Colin & John for making it just so!

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!!!

Not even a sparrow!

A couple of nights ago I erected a permanent hide at one of my local sites, it was made out of some old wooden pallets and a large tarpaulin. It took me a couple of hours to make and if all goes to plan the resident Little Owls will accept it and some super close up images should follow!

Anyway, today I tried it out for the first time, my intentions were to make the most of the early rising sun, so I arrived very early.....4.45am! It was a  great start too, one of the resident Little Owls was sitting out on one of the new stumps that I'd put up, right next to my brand new shiny hide!

At 9.45am I departed...................FIVE HOURS of waiting and nothing, the owl didn't return and not even a dam sparrow showed!!!!

Oh well, all things come to those who wait, I'm sure I'll have better luck next time?

Next stop was South Wigston and site 105, I was hoping for some better luck at this location. I parked the Landrover near to the nest tree and within minutes I picked up the hissing sound of begging Little Owl chicks, the noise was coming from high up in a tree, but not the nest tree. This meant they have fledged the nest, all I had to do now was locate the blighters, this didn't take long, and there was a pair!! They were running, yes running back and forth along a fallen limb that was wedged horizontally about 5 metres up. Although the light was not favourable I did manage some images of them, double click on any picture for a larger size with more detail. 

Getting a little weary now, a big yawn, maybe ready for bedtime?

I thought as much, after 20 minutes of playing around with its sibling one of them snuggled down just inside the fallen limb and fell asleep!

I sat and waited for a bit more action from the youngsters when both the parents appeared.  They skillfully positioned themselves between me and the juveniles, a form of parental protection no doubt. The closeness was quite amazing, something you only really get during the breeding season.....if you are lucky!!!!

I sensed that they were becoming agitated, so a few images later I departed leaving them all to it!

Next stop was site 39 at Countesthorpe, nothing was showing in or around the nest tree but again I heard the hissing from a begging juvenile. It didn't take long to find it, no hang on, I'll re-phrase that......THEM! Superb there was a pair, although distant I did managed a couple of images.

I waited a while to see if the parents would come and feed them but no such luck. It was now time to go but not before I managed this close up of one of the juveniles that apparently had come over to have a closer look at me. Unfortunately the image is not too clear as there was some foliage in the way.

I may go and try the new hide again tomorrow, but not as early as today because I need my ugly sleep and I won't be staying too long as I have a pressing appointment with a few pints of Guinness at a local pub, its time to cheer on England in the footie again.

Fluff Ball

Not much to shout about this weekend in terms of Little owl's sightings, my intentions were to have a nice early start on Saturday. This didn't happen......I think the drowning of my sorrows the night before took its toll, too many toasts to our gloriously useless England Football Team (what a bunch of TO#*ERS!!!!).

After the late start (and still throbbing head) a nice lazy day was planned, but not as lazy as it turned out! I went over to my site 33 at the local quarry. My intention was to hopefully get some adult images bringing in a variety of food for the juveniles. I was in situ and in my hide for 11.30am, after half an hour a juvenile appeared and sat at the nest entrance.  Great the plan was coming together, all I needed now was the adults to appear...........at 7.30pm I packed up, no adults showed after a wait of EIGHT hours!!!!!!

All I had to show for a very loooooooooong day was this "fluff ball" of a juvenile Little Owl.

  

Sunday found me checking out a few local sites with the hope of seeing some "out of the nest" juveniles. First call was at site 53 near to Countesthorpe, here a juv was spotted almost immediately sitting in a cavity below the nest hole.  

During the morning another 6 sites were visited but all to no avail, no more juveniles were sighted but en route a few adult birds were seen but all too distant for any decent images.

A single bird was located sunning itself at site 77.

Another single bird was seen out hunting from the posts at site 105.

Hopefully the lack of juvenile sighting will be put right in the week to come, that is if they haven't all gone into hiding and don't want to come out to play...........just like our football team!!!!! 

Arty Farty!

Over the last two days I have been going about my normal owling business only this time I was in the good company of Andy Rouse the well know wildlife photographer. We had loads of plans, loads of sites to visit and loads and loads of Little Owls to photograph............well that was the plan!!! The weather has been just abysmal and it hardly stopped raining for the two days he was with me. To make the most of the daylight hours (what day light?) we had two early starts and staked out numerous locations.

Below are a few of the images I managed (as usual double click on it for greater detail), not a lot to show considering the amount of time we spent, but not too bad when you take into account the constant rain and very low light levels. We had some very quiet periods when the owls just did not show, so this gave me plenty of opportunity to discuss with Andy some of the photo techniques he employs which results in some stunning images.

Among all the tips and advice he gave me one of the best was to try and achieve an atmospheric image that shows not only the owl but the natural surroundings it lives in too. Given the right situation, conditions and some accommodating owls I will be trying this new technique out in the future.

My first attempt at an "atmospheric image" normally I would have cropped this image so it would have shown just the owl and hardly any thing else. Here we can see (if you look hard enough) the owl just emerging from its nest entrance with some superb tree detail.

The same bird a split second or so late, I've had to crop out some really horrible areas of the image and thus the composition is not quite right but I think it works.................nearly???

The next site we visited is a bird and an setting I have taken on many previous occasions, only this time I have tried to be a little bit more "arty" by allowing the image to "breath" a bit. Can you see the owl?

Another attempt at being a little more artistic, nicely posed owl and some nice detail on the tree trunk and nothing else that is distracting to the eye!

This next image shows a nice natural "green" habitat that I particually like that shows off the bird well, but due to the foreground branches I had to crop it more that I would have liked. Obviously the horrible grey sky on the right hand side is really distracting to the eye and completely spoils the image.

This next image was taken from quite a considerable distance and I would normally have cropped right into the bird making it hardly usable, but because I haven't been as severe as normal with the cropping it makes the image a little more usable.

Finally this last image shows I thought a little more about my positioning and got a nice composition of the Little Owl and on an interesting branch..........but what spoils it is the horrid gap in the background trees that shows the sky, doooohhhhh!!!! 

It was a real experience and privilege spending some time with Andy and hopefully his advice will pay dividends for me in the future??...........Cheers Andy.

Washing in the rain!

Rid you must be bonkers going out in this, I thought to myself as I made my way to the "big field" in South Wigston, it was absolutely pouring it down with rain, the light was really poor, surely no sane Little Owl would be mad enough to venture out in this..........or would they???

I parked up the Landrover in between the nest tree and some very attractive hunting posts (attractive to the owls that is) and waited. The rain was so heavy I couldn't see out of the windows, so it was on with the de-mister and windscreen wipers, five minutes later I spotted my first owl (he must be as mad as me being out in this!!!).

What I witnessed next was truly remarkable, the owl in question sat on a fence post, wings outstretched having a bath for a good 10 minutes!!!! Well of all the different and unusual antics that I have seen Little Owls perform this was a new one to me. 

Double click on any of the below images for larger and more detailed version.

After the rain bath the owl got to work looking for worms on the grass. it didn't take him long to find his juicy wriggly morsel and he flew with it onto a post I had previously positioned. Moments later he was off again, worm in beak towards his nest hole.

There was no messing about, he flew straight to the cavity, popped his head in and fed the chick. Not the greatest image but I uploaded it because if you look carefully you can see the chick just inside the hole, no doubt waiting for his next feed.

I then moved on along the field and up to site 77, today an owl was out.

I am really in a rush whilst writing this as I am suppose to be going out for a curry........10 minutes ago!!!! So I'm gunna have to cut loose and go, but before I  dash off, I would like to leave you with this final image of a very wet and bedraggled Little Owl, an image I am very very pleased with...........possibly my best so far????

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.