BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND..................................................SPOTTED REDSHANK RIVER CONDER HOWARD STOCKDALE

Friday 26 February 2010

Rain Stopped Play.


Not the most original title but the rain did stop play so lets take a look at a popular bird and a bit of its history.


Well this is one of my pics so definitely not the best in the world of the Little Owl seen one day at Cockersand Abbey Farm and not seen there before or since in my records book.

The Little Owl isn't a native of this country and has been introduced to England on more than one occasion mostly unsuccessfully. Suggestions are that most of today's birds are descendants from the ones brought over from the Netherlands by one Lord Lilford during the 1880-90 to which I am bound to comment....why didn't Lord Lilford leave the poor creatures alone in the Netherlands.

By around the 1950's just about all the areas in the country had been occupied by the Little Owl, though it remains scarce in Scotland and there are only four records from Ireland. There are suggestions that dispersal is modest both in Great Britain and on mainland Europe with very few beyond 40 miles and it seems first-time breeders are usually within a few miles of their birthplace. The lack of records from the Northern Isles supports the sedentary nature of the bird and interestingly there are more records of Scops Owl than Little Owl in Shetland. There are a few recoveries from ringing within Great Britain but none have left here, neither have any overseas birds been recovered within Great Britain.


I'm always excited by the sighting of a Little Owl and this is another of my moderate photographic efforts of the obliging Gulf Lane, Cockerham Moss bird. When I was a delivery driver for a car parts company I spent many hours over the years having my lunch break in company with a bird regularly on a small barn on a back road to Ingleton from Bentham....halcyon days and the perfect position to be in an employment which accommodated to perfection my then growing passion for the birds....and still growing.




1 comment:

  1. Rain stopped play! A familiar story!

    Little owls are great, once you've found their day roost site you can see them day after day.

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