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 12 May 2010

No More No Cuckoo!!!

After work this evening I decided I could just squeeze in a couple of hours over at "Rids Patch" before the footie starts, glad I did as well! Upon arrival all the usual suspects were on the scrap, including five little ringed plovers and the solitary greenshank that is still hanging around. During the coarse of my walk I managed to tick off another five species that I hadn't seen her before, swift, robin, starlin, long tailed tit and finally a cuckoo. A very handsome but quiet male bird was making his way from post to post along the stream in snipe marsh, on occasions he would disappear out of sight into the long grass in the ditch but it wasn't long before he re-emerged. I did managed some images but due to still not having my 500mm lens back yet from being repaired they were very poor (don't they bloody mess about at these dam repair shops!).

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