Tawny Owlets at Nant y gama

Near the cottage we rent while on the North Wales coast there is large woodland about 5 minutes away and recently we heard that there was an Eagle Owl in one of the areas of the woodland. Unfortunately we never spotted this beast of a bird even though we looked about 8 times over the 2 weeks we spent there. While searching the Woodland we heard Blackbirds alarm calling off one of the woodland paths and this could mean one thing at this time of the year and that is Tawny Owls of coarse. We spotted 2 quite developed Owlets flying from one tree to another. They were quite high up when one moved the other would follow by the time we left the pair went from the middle of the woodland to the edge.

From photographing Tawny Owls down by my local canal I have learn't the adult birds usually roost close by and thanks to my brothers eagle eyes he spotted one of them in the tree next to the Owlets.

While watching the Tawny's I heard the call of a Woodpecker chick nearby. After searching a few trees I found the hole with a young Great Spotted Woodpecker sticking it's head out waiting for a feed but what we saw feed the chick was very usual.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike

Nettled in November!!!!!!!!!!

With the days being shorter, wetter but still very mild I have thought that rather than try and squeeze a walk in the evening in the dark when the roads are still busy and there are still people around. I have started getting up early on my days off and heading out on foot for an early morning walk to see what I can bump into and there's a really lovely ambiance in the peace of a cold, dark winters morning when the Tawny's are calling under the stars and moons on a clear sky morning. Sometimes I end up creating new paths or wandering into vegetation I can't see and the other morning I got nettled and as it's November and nearly Christmas I was very surprised that there are still nettles. There also seems to be not many Tawny's calling at the minute so I wonder if the warmer weather and large amounts of green vegetation that's still remaining is confusing the wildlife and holding back the normal signs of winter that we normally see. This week things are due to change and get colder so I will be out for a few evenings enjoying the clear starry sky's and hoping to enjoy the Tawny calls after a quiet start to there Winter pairing performances. Expect lots more Wild blogs with less recent photographs but more of my thoughts, sightings and photographs/videos from this Summer.

Thanks for visiting my blog

Mike

Camera trap night 4 of 5 results and Young Tawny owls

 After checking the camera traps I had 38 videos that had been recorded overnight. I took my Laptop with me so I could check the videos straight away instead of heading on the long walk back home. No badgers had been filmed on the card as only a mouse that probably lived down one of the badgers holes kept eating peanuts and scampering around. After packing up my camera traps to head home and feeling disapointed with the results I had got I decided on exploring nearby. Close to the Badger sett is a small woodland adjacent to the canal and I heard a blackbird alarm calling so I decided to check it out. Amazingly it was a bird I had never seen in the wild and it was a stunning adult Tawny owl. The bird was hunting and I was so pleased I managed to get a great shot of it with a young blackbird chick in its talons which it caught to feed its 4 young that had left the nest recently.

As the Adult called the Owlets answered back and led me to there location. So after creeping closer I managed to film the young and adults as they sat in the sun. Its the first time I have ever filmed an Owl and hopefully not the last. After disappointed with the Badger camera trap it turned out it was a great day after all and another bird off the list. I will keep an eye on the Tawny owls for the next few days to try and film them flying and feeding the owlets before they leave the area to find territory's of there own.
Adult in the shadows of an old Oak

Owlet looking down through the canopy at me

Regards

Mike