More owls and a Wheatear.

More Owls! Recently I have found myself reluctant to do any "proper" birding - and by proper birding I mean heading out to somewhere like Rutland for the day on the hunt of passage goodies. I'm not sure whats caused the reluctance, probably the total lack of any passage waders moving through Leicestershire over the past couple of weeks. As a result of not being arsed to go wader hunting nearly all the birdwatching I've done recently has been Owl related. Im starting to wonder whether there is some truth in Amy's claims that Paul is "grooming" me and turning me against all other avian goodies!

In correlation with this claim I headed out nice and early this afternoon on the hunt for Little Owl with the hope of adding some more images to my increasing portfolio of "the internets worst owl images". On a side note im considering buying an actual camera within the next couple of months and am somewhat baffled at what to buy..... as a reasonably cheap starter set up im considering something like this.........any advice on this would be much appreciated as im currently bumbling around like a blind man in a cave.


So I went out for an Owl today with two new targets in mind to help spice things up. Target one was getting some images from sites that I'd never previously managed to do so and the second target was getting two owls in one shot - again, something I'd never managed! Well, Im pleased to report I failed miserably on both counts and only managed to get images of my photo-whore owls that always give themselves up and allow me to photograph them. Still, shouldn't complain:

I also plumbed new depths by taking my first ever video of an owl. Dont worry, its only 12 seconds long so won't offend you're eyes for too long!

My travels today took me past Frolesworth so I stopped off for a while and grilled the horse paddocks in the hope of a nice Wheatear or Whinchat and thankfully saw the former... any comments on the race of this bird would be welcome, the bird had a very buff orangey front and pointed the stringy side of my brain towards the Greenland race but i'm just not sure......

see....very buff

In other news a single Swallow was seen in Peatling Magna on my travels today and 3 Buzzards were soaring over Ullesthorpe golf club. Garden sightings recently have included the first (4) Long tailed tits for a couple of months and we are now being regularly visited by two Greater spotted Woodpeckers (one of each sex), which is nice to see as during the summer months Woodpecker sightings tail off hugely in our garden. Mumsy had a probable Siskin yesterday too which was gripping but also satisfying as in a recent post I claimed the garden looked good for Siskin this year and BLAM! One turns up! In terms of stuff i'm no longer seeing in the garden Coal tit haven't been seen for a couple of weeks and Bullfinch sightings have slowed to a trickle.