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!!!

Thursday 14 January 2010

Leicestershire - The promised land?

Several months ago (around sept '09) the BBC's "THE ONE SHOW" had a short film article about the demise of the little owl in the UK. It featured a lady called Emily Joachim who was doing a PHD out of Reading university on behalf of the Hawk and Owl trust. Although a very interesting article I was compelled to contacrt Emily as my little owl survey in Leicestershire seemed to be bucking the UK trend.  I explained what I had been doing over the previous 13 months or so and that here in Leicestershire there seemed to be a very healthy population. I explained that at that time I had located around 75 different little owl sites, Emily expressed a great interest in my findings and this weekend she is finally making the trip up to Leicestershire for our first meeting. I am hoping that we can help each other with our individual surveys and also come to an understanding on why Leicestershire seems to be the centre of the earth as far as little owls are concerned!;-)

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