Well the days are really geting shorter and the cool air is starting to arrive, this is when people start telling me I should swap my shorts for trousers! I am in the process of building boxes for a few different species of birds of prey in my local area, I need to get them up sooner rather than later so that the birds can get used to them and hopefully use them for the winter ready for spring. One species I am focusing on is the Little Owl, in Cheshire the grazed farm land with old Oak trees has proved to be perfect habitat for these owls but in recent years myself and friends have noticed a drop in pairs. I knew I had at least one pair on my local patch and the great thing is Little Owls are sedentary and hold territory all year round so myself and a friend decided to see if we could locate the territory(s) so we could put some boxes up for the birds.
So on Friday night we went out armed with our Little Owl MP3 call to locate the pairs, now I say night but Little Owls start becoming active at dusk but you will also see them out during the day. The first pair I knew about responded immediatly but then we heard another owl from the other side of the field, now it is fairly common that if the land is good for Little Owls you will get territorys very close to each other and we put this down to being a second pair based on the distance apart. We drove to the back of the farm where a pair of Kestrels had nested this year and played the call, we didnt have to wait long for a response from an Oak tree and also a large pile of rubble out in the field. SO were putting it down as potentially three pairs of Little Owl on the area of farm we found and in the next couple of weeks we will be back out in the fields choosing suitable locations for the boxes.
Want to see a bit of Little Owl action then have a look below
http://www.arkive.org/little-owl/athene-noctua/
Other news from the bird of prey world at the moment Red Kites are doing extremely well in Ireland after an extensive release project http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/red-kite-ireland2011.html#cr
Did anyone catch the opening Autumnwatch 2011 on Friday, if you didn't then click on the BBC iPlayer link as there is a great piece by Roy Dennis one of the worlds leading Osprey experts and his role is radio tagging the three Osprey chicks born in Monmouthshire, Wales.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015pskp/Autumnwatch_2011_Episode_1/
Back onto the topic of Red Kites I have come across another website based on these birds back in the UK and also asking people to take part in a survey of feeding Red Kites in the UK, sadly I am not lucky enough to have Red Kites in the area never mind feeding the birds in my back garden. Have a look below
http://www.redkites.net/
I have also had a message informing me of a society created for Turkey Vultures Society, I have only had a brief glance at the website but it seems to have all the information you might need on these highly adaptable birds. http://vulturesociety.homestead.com/
I am currently in the process of tidying up the Books page as I have added several new titles to my book case and I am also trying to set up something exciting for the I've never heard of that bird of prey page on the right hand tool bar.
Hope you enjoy and keep coming back!
So on Friday night we went out armed with our Little Owl MP3 call to locate the pairs, now I say night but Little Owls start becoming active at dusk but you will also see them out during the day. The first pair I knew about responded immediatly but then we heard another owl from the other side of the field, now it is fairly common that if the land is good for Little Owls you will get territorys very close to each other and we put this down to being a second pair based on the distance apart. We drove to the back of the farm where a pair of Kestrels had nested this year and played the call, we didnt have to wait long for a response from an Oak tree and also a large pile of rubble out in the field. SO were putting it down as potentially three pairs of Little Owl on the area of farm we found and in the next couple of weeks we will be back out in the fields choosing suitable locations for the boxes.
Want to see a bit of Little Owl action then have a look below
http://www.arkive.org/little-owl/athene-noctua/
Other news from the bird of prey world at the moment Red Kites are doing extremely well in Ireland after an extensive release project http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/red-kite-ireland2011.html#cr
Did anyone catch the opening Autumnwatch 2011 on Friday, if you didn't then click on the BBC iPlayer link as there is a great piece by Roy Dennis one of the worlds leading Osprey experts and his role is radio tagging the three Osprey chicks born in Monmouthshire, Wales.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015pskp/Autumnwatch_2011_Episode_1/
Back onto the topic of Red Kites I have come across another website based on these birds back in the UK and also asking people to take part in a survey of feeding Red Kites in the UK, sadly I am not lucky enough to have Red Kites in the area never mind feeding the birds in my back garden. Have a look below
http://www.redkites.net/
I have also had a message informing me of a society created for Turkey Vultures Society, I have only had a brief glance at the website but it seems to have all the information you might need on these highly adaptable birds. http://vulturesociety.homestead.com/
I am currently in the process of tidying up the Books page as I have added several new titles to my book case and I am also trying to set up something exciting for the I've never heard of that bird of prey page on the right hand tool bar.
Hope you enjoy and keep coming back!
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