Barnie Babies...

The weekend was a complete washout, high winds and driving rain kept me firmly indoors. This gave me a great opportunity to catch up with the Barn Owls where we have a nest box cam.

I sat and watched the goings on from the comfort of my warm and dry office, although there wasn't much to see really as the hen owl just sat there not moving. So during this period of total inactivity I went back through some of the recording from earlier that day. All the recordings were the same, the hen owl just sitting there static! Then I started viewing a recording from 4.48am and to my surprise the hen owl wasn't to be seen, but look what was then in view.....3 chicks!  The screen shot below shows what appears to be a clump of white fluff in the middle, but be assured there is at least 3 chicks there and a yet to hatch egg.

I now understand why she hasn't been moving, she was keeping her little brood warm. Although the weather conditions certainly don't favour the Barn Owls in their hunting at the moment they seem to be doing OK.

Jewel in the crown.

I have been a bit lazy of late, maybe the longest I have gone between posts on this blog? For good reason though, rain rain and yet more rain! It has made it almost impossible to get out after work unless that is one is equipped with a frog mans suit!

Anyway, today (Saturday) it was time to brush off the cobwebs and get out there come rain or shine, and guess what? Yep it was the former! 

Several owl sites were visited and nothing seen, maybe my snorkel and flippers had put them off! The day wasn't all doom and gloom though, as I was flitting about from site to site on the  Leicestershire/Northants boarder when I chanced upon a small passage of Wheatear. Difficult to say just how many there were because they wouldn't stay still long enough to get an exact count but a conservative guess would be eight, or was that nine, maybe even ten.....?

Of the group two of them seemed to be more confiding than the rest, it was these two (below), a male and a female of which I managed my best and closest images. At first I kept driving along the track that was parallel to the field they were in, this worked to a certain extent but they were a bit flighty and the quality of the images were poor!

A different approach was then employed, I parked up and waited for them to come to me, it finally worked but it was a longer waiting game than I anticipated! I am really pleased with how my efforts turned out, they are by far the best images I have ever achieved of this species.

Wheatear - Female

Wheatear - Male

Wheatear - Male

Wheatear - Male

I was about to call it a day when I remembered that my "team" Leicester City were playing their last game of the footie season away at "Dirty Leeds". I tuned in the radio to the live commentary of the game, this relieved the boredom somewhat so I decided to stay put a while longer with the Wheatears.

And what a great decision that turned out to be as another "quality" species (well for me it is anyway!) and the jewel in the crown of the day was spotted skulking around in the undergrowth........a Whinchat!!!!!

I have only ever seen a Whinchat on a handful of previous occasions, and this was the first that I had located myself. The single bird, a male seemed far more nervous than the Wheatear and didn't come as close. However, I was thrilled to have found it and very pleased to have got my first ever image of one, albeit distant.

Whinchat - Male

A cracking mornings birding and unbelievably not an owl seen! It was then made all the better as my beloved Leicester City beat Leeds 2-1..........get in there you blue boys!!!!!

Wasted weekend...

There wasn't much time to get out and about over the last weekend, I'd been tasked with finishing off all the DIY projects that had been started and not finished during the last few months, well last few years if I must be honest......its a bloke thing!

Anyway, after being a good boy I rewarded myself with a few free hours late on Sunday afternoon to go out. My first stop off was to see if the local Redstart was still hanging about? A three hour wait in my hide nothing was seen, I was resigned to the fact it must have moved on so with only an hour or so of light left I called it a day and decided to go and see if any owls were out.  

I flitted from site to site and saw nothing, then to save the day and to get my "owling fix" I located the resident pair at my site No 107. The male owl was basking in what little sun was left on top of a haystack and the hen owl was caught coming out of the nest cavity.   

I am hoping to get out and do a bit more owling in the evenings during the coming week or so, that is if the "inspector" passes off my DIY projects..........Mmmmmm what are the chances of that?

Redstart re-visited!

Couldn't resist going back for another look at the male Redstart, better conditions today!

Redstart

The Leicestershire birding jungle drums were beating soundly this afternoon, a real gem of a bird in the form of a Black Winged Stilt had dropped into Rutland Water, although an excellent tick for most county recorders I wasn't able to make the 20 or so mile trip to see it!  

Then another text messages came through with news of a male Restart that was showing well at the village of Froelsworth. Now normally I don't go pursuing "other peoples" birds as I prefer to find my own but as this was very local I was compelled to go and have a look.

After a bit of a mix up and some wasted time as to whether the bird was north or south of the identified location I finally latched on to the three other birders whom were looking for it. Finally we re-located it and I got some superb views. 

It was certainly a handsome bird and although not an owl I really enjoyed watching this little beauty feeding avidly around a pile of horse manure.

I have been lucky enough to make at least an annual sighting of a Redstart in Leicestershire over the  past 4 or 5 consecutive years, the last time was back in August 2011 where a chance encounter was made whilst photographing a pair of Little Owls, see below.

Better than pathetic??

I went back over to my latest new site last night (No 209), my purpose was to improve on the first image I managed (see previous post) which was to say the least poor!

The condition weren't really any better, overcast, drizzly and the owl was still in heavy shadow but rather than take the image from distance like last time I made the most of being allowed into the field which hosts the nest tree. The Landrover was positioned around 20 feet away and then the waiting game commenced. The male owl was high up in the tree and no images were possible, but eventually the hen owl popped out of the nest cavity to have a look at me which resulted in the image below.

Still not the image I am after but much improved on my first pathetic attempt!

Good light and bad!

It has been just over 4 years now since I picked up my first digital camera, it has been a massive learning curve and almost every time I take it out I learn something new. But there is one thing for sure, good light goes a long way in making and average image a better image.

Therefore when ever I am out I will always take time to work out where and when would be the best positions so as to make the light work in my favour. Sometimes getting into a better position means a longer wait and maybe no images at all, but it is a gamble of which I am prepared to take as the final outcome is nearly always more rewarding.

A typical example of this is the two images below, both were taken this evening and believe it or not within 30 minutes of each other. In the first image almost everything was perfect, light, background and the closeness of the owl. The only other major variable that could spoil such an opportunity was the camera operator! I knew I could have positioned myself at this owl site where there would have been far more chances of getting an image but the light would have been coming from behind the owl, something I didn't want. So in this case  I worked myself into a position where I knew there was not going to be too many chances of getting a decent image as the owl didn't land on this particular perch very often, but today the gamble paid off as the owl obliged for a few fleeting seconds.   

The second image was taken at a brand new site, No 209 near to the village of Newbold Verdon. My mate Hoodie gave me the heads up on this particular site a few days ago, cheers mate! I know he perhaps won't believe me but I have stopped and looked in this tree on many previous occasions, well you have to with a fantastic owly crevice like that.

Anyway, the light levels were still pretty good when the new owl was spotted, but due to the sun being in totally the wrong direction it was in complete shade. They were really horrid conditions to get decent image let alone a record shot. I had to bump up the ISO to 1600 which allows for a lighter image but then the image gets all nasty with a grainy effect, as you can see for yourself?

But as they say beggars can't be choosers and tonight this was all about getting my first image of an owl at a new site.  

I

I have now studied the site and worked out what time of day would be best for photography purposes, but what this meant was I'd have to be in the adjacent field! Then my task was to find out who owned the land and could permission be obtained for access?

After a bit of networking I met Tom and his Dad Dave, and may I say a couple of very hospitable gents they turned out to be! Access was granted, for me and for my Landrover.......what a result!

But then things got even better, a second Little Owl was seen, brilliant a pair! But that's not where things ended, it turns out that Dave has had breeding Barn Owls in his back garden too, so a deal was struck. Dave will allow me access to his field (and he gave me a key to the lock!) and in turn I will be putting him a brand new box up in his barn...........a good deal or what?

Bank Holiday........Part 2

I had planned to make the most of this Bank Holiday Monday and have another owlathon, but I had second thoughts as a couple of blog followers were kind enough to pre-warn me that the weather was going to be awful! So with that in mind I sneaked out over the weekend instead, here are a few images I was lucky enough to capture whilst out......

Little Owl in flight, a terribly difficult piece of action to capture, I'm pretty pleased with this effort though!

A re-visit to one of my "newer" sites, No 205 near to Gilmorton found both the resident owls sheltered up in a hollow tree. I was able to get the Landrover very close without spooking them and this image (below) was the result.

Although the owls at my site No 154 were out and very active I couldn't get very close to them! So I offer this "arty" image (below) of the hen owl sitting in a hollow tree trunk. 

I try to avoid "back lit" images when ever possible, highlights and defining shadows are lost leaving an image looking "flat". Although it wasn't sunny it was still pretty bright and coming from behind the owl (below) at my site No 135.     

I have found that Little Owls don't like the wind, so when it is windy searching for them is made all the more easier if you look on the sheltered side of trees and hedgerows. Employing this method the Little Owl at site No 136 was found with ease. He was roosting on the topside of a small crevis and all fluffed up to help retain his warmth.  

Bank Holiday, part 1.......

Yippee, a whole day off work, the weather was reasonable and I'd got my Landrover back! There was nothing else for it, an owlathon was on the cards. I hadn't been over to the eastern side of my monitoring area so far this year, so that is where I headed.

First stop was at my site No 169, the roadside nest tree normally makes it quite easy to locate the owls, but not today! A bit of searching soon had the first one within my sights though, it was in the next tree along sheltering out of the wind. From my position I wasn't able to get an image so I drove off down the lane, turned around and then pulled up on the opposite side of the road parallel with the owl. It wasn't spooked, it just sat there seemingly quite content to be tucked away out of the wind. 

The male owl then put in an appearance, he'd landed on a gate post a little further down the lane. From the angle he was at the camo netting I had up at the window wasn't  concealing me, he was giving me a proper stare! A couple of shots were rattled off and then that was that, he was gone!

Next site was my No 176 near to Launde Abbey, only a single owl was seen here and he was dead easy to find! He was on the same branch and in the same tree he is always to be found in. I spent a good 30 minutes parked up underneath him and in all that time he didn't budge!

At site No 186 some brilliant close up views were had, it took a while for the owl to show though. From previous visits I knew the owls favour two different trees to perch in, and in between them is a solitary post that they used. Near to this is where I positioned myself and eventually my patience was rewarded.

And to cap a pretty good day another new site was located, No 208! I was venturing along a lane  that I don't recall going down before near to Launde Abbey and then into view came a roadside tree that just oozed Little Owl. It had all the attributes required, isolated, mature, riddled with holes, some nice low down hunting posts and nearby pasture.  As it was time for something to eat I pulled up, started to fill my face whilst watching the tree.

Barely half of my sausage roll had been consumed when an owl appeared!!! Well at least I think it was an owl, it was a very fleeting glimpse on the far side of the tree and nearly 90% obscured by the branches. I needed no further encouragement, the picnic was put on hold and the Landrover re-positioned into a nearer gateway. After that I lost sight of the owl, unperturbed the camo screen was erected and my camera was at the ready, the waiting game was now on!

The next hour passed without occurrence, nothing was seen or heard, I was beginning to doubt if  what I saw earlier was an owl? A call of nature was now becoming a pressing requirement, I dare not get out of the Landy as that would deffo kill any chance of the owl showing itself. I weighed up the options and I decided it would cause less disturbance by driving off, seeing to my needs and then returning.

I was only gone around 5 minutes and on my return the owl was there!!! Firstly it sat perched in the tree and then on a wooden fence, I managed to capture images of both the used perches (below) before it again disappeared. 

Yep it was a good day, and what's even better is another bank holiday is with us this Monday, bring on part 2.......

Harris Hawk?

Driving back home this afternoon I saw this..........

After studying the image and trawling through the Internet, my conclusion is it is a Harris Hawk? Definitely not a UK species so what the heck was it doing in a roadside tree in sleepy Leicestershire???

My only conclusion is it must be an escaped bird, especially when you look at the suspicious looking branch in the lower left part of the image, a leather Jessie maybe?

Catching up!

A quick catch up from last weekend & Monday night.......

The male Barn Owl continues to come for the "free offerings" at the box cam sight. The hen owl now sits tight on 5 eggs, we were hoping for six but I don't think that is going to happen as it has now past the expected laying of an egg every other day!

Over at the village of Leire the male Little Owl at my site No 188 was located out patrolling the perimeter of his territory.

At times the light levels were excellent which allowed for higher shutter speeds that then enabled the capture of this flight shot.

At site No 91 the Little Owls were distant (below), but it was good news as the resident pair are still holding their territory and still using the box that that I put up for them which they have so far successfully raised two broods. 

On a more sour note, the local land owner informed me that the two Barn Owl boxes that I have made and erected at this site don't look like they will be used this year? He found a dead Barn Owl on the side of the road, a casualty of a collision with a car!

The Little Owls at site No 14 took some finding, but they are still there! They have re-located to a new nest site across the other side of the field. Only the male owl was seen (image below) so I now suspect that the egg laying has started? 

A couple of new sites have also been located recently.

Site 206 near to the village of Hallaton was located a week or so ago although I forgot to mention it!

This was a double referral site from Dick Jones, a local birder and "Mr T" (John Turner) who both kindly informed me of a Little Owl sighting whilst they were watching over a Short Eared Owl site, thanks guys.

So at the earliest opportunity I went to have a look for myself, the owls were easily located, just where I was told they would be! Sadly no images as they were too far away, but I am sure it won't be long before I capture a picture or two of them as they are now high up on my list of sites to re-visit? 

New Little Owl site No 207 has also been tracked down, thanks must go again to "Mr T" who pointed me in the right direction. A pair are in residence here too and they didn't take much finding! I was surveying the general area and a single Ash Tree in the corner of the field captured my attention. It was situated near a small carrel type area with some nice posts and an adjoining hedgerow.

  

This was the closest view (below) during the time spent there, poor light and rain didn't help in getting a decent image, nice posture though.

EX62412

Following the sighting of my second ever ringed Little Owl out in the field (see previous post) I wanted to investigate things further to see if I could determine exactly where and when this owl had come from?

What I needed to do was go back and spend more time at the site where I saw her and if possible read the seven digit number on the ring. If those numbers could be sought then they could be crossed reference with the ringing records from the two previous years and hopefully it would prove she WAS one of my owls.

Anyway, this morning I was processing some more images of the owl in question (below) that clearly shows the ring on her right leg. Hang on a minute, if I zoomed right into the ring could I tell what the numbers where?

This image (below) is a very heavy cropped portion from the above image. Not good quality but the most important factor is four of the digits can be read........X624.

I then painstaking searched through a load more images and zoomed into the ring to see if any more of the required seven numbers could be read, and on this next image they could! The ring had turned around just enough to make out the numbers 2412.

So now I had the sequence of numbers......X62412, a few text messages were pinged off to Andy Smith and he came back to confirm.......Ring Number EX62412 was attached by him to a Little Owl (1 of 2) on 6/6/2011 at my Little Owl site No 68 near to the village of Peatling Parva.

Brilliant news, the mystery had been solved!

So I can now confirm that the hen owl (top image) who now resides at my site No 127 was one of two juveniles ringed on that day at site No 68. She had moved 1.5 km from her natal site to pair up with what must have been at the time a solitary male owl.

I then went back through my archives and found some images that I took whilst ringing at that site on that very day, see below. Now the problem I had was which one of the two juvenile owls that we rung is our owl? 

Hang on wait a minute, I can just make out the ring and some of the numbers in this image, mmmmm I wonder if I took a closer look could I make out the digits?

And what this last image concludes is just which one of the two juveniles it is, the last three digets can be made out, 412........yes its her!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading this last post as much as I did doing the investigational work???   

1st & 2nd ??

As the title suggests, I managed something for the first time and second time on Thursday evening. The first was something I have witnessed on many previous occasions and luckily have captured images of it occurring, but never on video!

Let me explain........

I was staked out at my Little Owl site No 127, the male owl was sitting out in a pollarded willow tree and posing nicely for me (image below). The late evening sun was definitely in my favour, what spoilt the images was the horrid "messy" background of the twigs and branches.

Then the hen owl made an appearance, she was a little deeper and higher up in the willow than that of the male, but as this was the nearest I had ever been to her I had to get some images.

I wasn't very hopeful that I would get any "keepers" of her as she was in deep shadow, but how wrong I was! I am actually very pleased with this image (below) I really like how the slither of sun penetrates through the branches to highlight just her face, a bit mystique I think?. 

The hen owl then dropped down onto the same branch as the male allowing me to get picture of them both together.

I was so busy messing about with my camera settings I nearly missed what happened next, the male starting to get very vocal and the hen replied with some calls of her own, they were getting agitated and excitable! I'd seen this behaviour before............!

I quickly changed my settings and for the first time ever caught Little Owls mating on film. This clip (below) is just a short extraction of a very extended session!!

I stayed with the owls until it was dark, that is when I managed this image (below) with the aid of the flash. This is definitely my favourite image from the night, an uncluttered and diffused background.....just how I like it!

Well you have read down to this far and I haven't yet mentioned the "second" thing I witnessed, but I have published an image of it, did you see it? If you go back up to the "mystique" image of the hen owl (second from the top) you will see she has a ring on her right leg! Now there is no one else for miles and miles who rings Little Owls so she has to be one of mine!!!! Only the second owl that I have encountered with a ring on.

I first located this site (No 127) on the 23rd September 2010, so it is impossible she is a juvenile that was rung from 2011, therefore she is a 2010 baby, the first year I started to ring owls. From that year we ringed owls at five different sites, the nearest being 3.0km away and the furthest 6.75km away! One would assume she is from the nearest ringing site from that year, but who can tell?

I will now try to study this site on a more frequent basis with the aim of reading the numbers on her ring, not sure how the hell I will manage it but until I do her natal site will remain a mystery! 

Barn Owl

Went over to the "Barn Owl Nest Cam" site last night, I wanted to witness again the male owl coming out for his supper!

Around 30 minutes before sunset I concealed myself away in an advantageous position so I could see the new "feeding" station. Once I'd been lying in wait for a while and the light had all but gone the landowner, Glyn came out and went through the same routine he has been doing for the last month or so, two dead day owl chicks were put out on the feeding post.

Glyn had only just shut the kitchen door of the farmhouse behind him when whoosh, in came the male owl for his feast.  He'd been waiting for his grub, just as Glyn said he would be!    

I am hoping that by the time there are chicks in the nest the adults owls will come out to feed a little earlier, I will hopefully then be able to get some images without the need of the flash.

Sneaking in?

After not getting out owling for the whole weekend I was just chomping at the bit to get out this evening, and lucky me the weather was just glorious. The sun was still pretty strong and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, ooh just perfect! As time was getting on I didn't want to waste too much time driving around, so I opted to visit my site No 10 in the adjacent village of Cosby.

Upon arrival I surveyed the area from distance, it wasn't a surprise to locate the resident owls out on top of the barns sunning themselves. Trouble was how was I going to get close without spooking them? As I was pondering over what tactics I should employ to get close to them the local farmer came up trundling up the track in his tractor. Now the owls here are use to the coming and going of the local farm traffic so as he passed me I tagged along behind him.  We went up the track in convoy and as soon as I was parallel with where the owls were I peeled off and parked. This worked perfectly, they didn't even give me a second glance!

The male owl was the nearest of the two, so I grabbed a few shots of him first. Shame I could only see his head and shoulders. 

I then turned my attentions to the hen owl, she was a little further away and sat motionless on the barn roof. It took a whole five minutes before she turned and faced me for this image. 

Whilst with the owls they seemed very relaxed and appeared to be totally oblivious of my presence. I think the combination of sneaking in behind the farmer, being ultra quiet and having the camo netting up at my window worked perfectly to stay undetected.

During this time the male owl did move about occasionally, as the light levels were just brilliant for higher shutter speeds I had a go at capturing some "action shots", something you don't often get with Little Owls!

Take off!  

Fly past!

As any long time followers (sufferers) of this blog will know, I have been attempting to get some "decent" action/flight shots of Little Owls for a few years now. I am very pleased with this evenings results, definitely up there with my best.........I think?