Little Owls Fledge

Here is a photo of a Little Owl that is now able to fly but is still using the nest hole in the wall as a safe diurnal rest place. Hole in the walls are not only useful to humans but nobody knows how many pairs of Little Owls use them as nest sites in Britain. There has never been a national survey on this and probably never will be in view of the number of walls in such places as the Yorkshire Dales. What is also not generally realised is that far from being nocturnal most of these wall nesting Pennine Little Owls feed their young actively during the day. In the last week alone I have filmed a pair bringing caterpillars to their young all day and seen another male bringing a field mouse to its young at 9.30am.

Whilst walking the forest I have again made contact with fully fledged young Long Eared Owls that only had their ear tufts to grow before becoming adults. Sparrow Hawks have been more elusive and to date I have not located any active nests, so time is running out.

On the local golf course Buzzards are present and sadly once again are not accompanied by any young. The sandy bank of the stream, that I dug vertical in March, is now occupied by a thriving colony of Sand Martins so it just shows that you can do something to help wildlife