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!!!

Tuesday 22 February 2011

In betweener!

Over the last week I haven't had much to report in terms of owl sightings and activity, a simple reason really, I've just not been out!! Don't read too much into that though, I've not just suddenly lost interest, far from it! Work just hasn't offered the "late in the day" opportunities, the weather has been really poor and last weekend I was away in London.

After this evenings events I am now firmly back in the "owling groove" (not that I was ever out of it!) and what better way than with a brand new site! I was driving home through the village of Leire and as I was passing my site No 62 I stopped off to see if they were about, and they were! Distant views were had of the pair as they sat in the nest tree, my first encounter since last September.

Poor light levels at site No 62.


I hung around for another 10 minutes to see if they would come closer and allow for an image with the aid of the flash, but they were having none of it and stayed put! After no more than 1 minute of leaving them I spotted another Little Owl in  a roadside tree, now this couldn't be one of the birds from site 62 as I'd only just left them and my next nearest site (No 84) was another half a mile up the road, get in there new site 155!! I suspect this may well be a juvenile from last year that has set its territory up in between the two existing territories? Hopefully it will have a mate, if so I didn't see it.....not this time anyway! Although it sat nicely in the tree watching me it just wasn't possible to attain an image due to how dark it was, dam and blast!!!

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