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Friday 29 July 2011

A Tawny I Didn't Want To See - on 26th July, 2011

A two hour stint in my hide at my Little Owl Site No.09 yielded no owls at all - only Tree Sparrows, a Whitethroat, and a probable Corn Bunting, so I moved onto my LO Site No.17, near Twycross. I arrived to find an adult bird on one of their favourite perches (as shown below) and then, just as I was contemplating setting up my hide, one of the brothers who own the farm came over for a chat.

Little Owl - my Site No.17
Whilst we leant on the gate and nattered, one of the adult birds was checking us out at a distance, but flew off after a while. After our chat, during which he told me of a nearby farm where he had seen Little Owls in the past, I had a quick look around to see if I could find an owl, but with no luck so I decided to go and follow up his tip. On the way there, I spotted something that I was not happy to see - a Tawny Owl dead in the road.

Tawny Owl (deceased) - near Bilstone
























It seems to me that owls are, unfortunately, somewhat prone to road accidents. It was only four weeks prior to this that I'd found a dead Little Owl in the road by my Site No.05. It was almost exactly 12 months ago that I'd had to anchor up sharply in my car for a Tawny sitting in the road on a fine evening.

The farmer at the tip-off location seemed a little reluctant at first, but opened up somewhat after a short chat. He'd seen owls in the past, but not this year. I spent a while looking round, but to no avail. After this I set off back towards home, feeling a bit down because of the Tawny. I stopped off on my local patch to find one of the adult Little Owls at my Site No.02 up on the chimney (no photos taken). I did get a distant shot of a female Blackcap, however.

Blackcap (female) - near Packington

3 comments:

  1. Nice pictures Richard. All road kills are sad but Owls particularly so. I have heard of Little Owls just outside West Ayton, Scarborough in the last couple of months but no joy yet.
    Like the Blackcap too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your sympathetic comments John & Mike. I wish you good luck with the West Ayton Little Owls Mike.

    ReplyDelete

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