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Wednesday 6 August 2014

OTHER LITTLE OWL SITES;



These are sites that Richard and myself visit on a regular basis, at some we only see the birds occasionally, others are it appears always in residence. Whichever it is, its always wonderful to see them.



Little Owl Site No 7.
This is a site at which we occasionally see a bird. It has been seen in a tree approximately 200 metres away. After I took this shot {at a fair distance with a 70 - 300mm lens} the bird disappeared behind the asbestos sheeting only to re appear a few seconds later covered in rust


Little Owl Site No 8.
This is a site first found by Richard whilst returning late one evening from Rutland Water and in passing he saw the bird sitting on a fence pots. We have visited the site on numerous occasions and have probably had three or four fleeting glimpses of the birds. We were passing the site on a return from an afternoon and evening owling when as we passed the site I saw the bird, reversed up and got the shot. It may be only a back view, but its a little owl.


Little Owl Site No 9.
This is an image from earlier in the year with both adults sitting in the entrance of the nest hole. Last year unfortunately they were ousted by jackdaws, this year whilst we were watching them jackdaws appeared and were seen off by the little owls.


Will you come down.


Beggar, they are back again.



Little Owl Site No 10.
These birds are very close to the previous site, and over the Winter kept alternating trees so we were unsure as to which site was which and to how many birds we had. Some of the shots we take are over a silly distance so the end results are not that good. For the above I walked over the field so as to get a bit closer. The bird appears relaxed.


This is one taken at a silly distance, about 175 metres.


Hare at Site 10.


Little Owl Site No 11.
This site we have seen birds at only once. We saw the farmer a few weeks later, a jolly Irish farmer who stated " he saw the little fellas regular". We have not seen the farmer lately but we must make a concerted effort to see him and track down his birds.


Little Owl Site |No 12.
This site we were told about by one of the Wardens at Rutland Water. We again visited the site many times before seeing a bird. I actually got first blood by sitting out and watching and was about to leave when a lump appeared on the roof, a little owl just peeping over the ridge. These are very nervous birds, we took the above record shots and then went to walk across the field, opened the gate and took about 4 steps and the bird was gone. Both of us tried this on different occasions, both got the same result.



Same birds just at the adjacent Barn.


Adult and two Juveniles.


Juveniles peering from behind the bricks.


Little Owl Site No 13.
This site is at a very dear farmer friends farm. He and his wife have had little owls on the farm for years and have allowed me to share them.




Little Owl Site No 14.
This site no longer exists and the birds have disappeared else where. Part of the tree fell away and after that the birds seemed to range farther away, we saw them a good distance farther down the road  and Richard managed to get a record shot but we have not seen them since. We talked to the farmer as he was cutting down several of the trees, they appear to be diseased and it was then he told us about another site, my site No 1.

About Me;


Titus White:
Hi I am Richard Peglers friend Titus White, and those who follow Richards posts will understand the name and reason for it. I have been birding with Richard for 3 years and a volunteer at Rutland Water on the Osprey Project for 2 years. My early images were taken on a Nikon D80 with a 70 - 200mm lens. I updated the lens to a 70 - 300mm VR lens but still was not happy with the results. Eventually when Nikon announced the D7100 I decided to change so upgraded the camera and also invested in a Sigma 50 - 500mm lens.
I first met Richard through Arthur Costello as I was having the occasional visit from Little Owls on our land. We eventually found the Little Owls through another contact about 100 metres away. Photo's will follow on future posts.
I have recently upgraded my camera to full frame, this is a challenge I am at the moment enjoying trying to get the best out of the beast.
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