Little Owls On The Rocks! - on 30th June, 2012

Yesterday evening I went to visit my pal Titus with the intention of trying to get some photos of his Barn Owl juveniles, but more of that later.

On the previous day (Friday) I decided to take a break, late in the evening, from the long slog of sorting through the two thousand plus Scotland photos and head up to my local patch for some Little Owl therapy (I'd not seen a Little Owl for nearly two weeks!). One of the owls was out on the chimney where, in the evening, it's not at all photogenic. Furthermore it was cloudy. The owl then decided to come and check me out by flying to the nearer end of the building. Just then the sun came out and the owl stayed there while I got out of my car and walked over to a suitable position - bingo!

Little Owl - my Site No.02

 Yesterday, as already mentioned, I went over to Titus's place. The weather looked promising before I set out, but started going downhill from the moment I set foot outside the door. En-route I stopped in at my lastest Little Owl site (No.28). As I approached I immediately noticed a juvenile sitting on a rock beside the road. It obligingly sat there whilst I took some shots.

Little Owl (juvenile) - my Site No.28

It then flew up into a tree for a short while and I took some more shots, but nothing very satisfactory. Keen to see if I could locate any of the other juveniles I drove off a short way to have a look round, but only found one up on the roof where I'd already had some images in better light.

Turning back towards my original position, I saw a juvenile on the grass on the other side of the road to the previous sighting at about a hundred metres. Then another owl appeared briefly behind it - by it's behaviour I think that this was an adult. Next thing I knew the juvenile flew into a tree on the original side of the road. I took some shots, but it was brightening up which actually made the lighting even more difficult. It then flew down onto a different rock for a short while.

Little Owl (juvenile) - my Site No.28

It didn't stay there long, flying back up into the tree and looking concerned. I soon found out why, when a couple walking three dogs came up the road and stopped to ask me what I was looking at - whereupon the owl took off and flew onto a distant roof.

It was time to go - I was already going to be late at Titus's place - and by the time I got there the skies were black and it had started to rain. I didn't even bother setting up for photography, but just stayed indoors for a chat before coming home early.

Yes, the next post should be about Scotland (probably in two or three days), but I'm still only half-way through sorting the photos!