Long Eared Owl Success

Having mentioned in last week’s blog about the successful breeding of some raptors this year, due to the abundance of voles, I was not surprised to find three more recently fledged Long Eared Owls this week, one with a missing ear tuft! The gallery shows them in the pines plus some of the other birds I have come across in the Pennines this season. Click here At the moment the three Kingfisher sites that I monitor each year all have newly hatched young so the next three weeks need to be reasonably dry to ensure their successful fledging. All three pairs have already fledged first broods of young so they have had a much better start than in the last couple of years which have been abysmal. July is the month to encounter Stoats and last week alone I have seen three different individuals darting across country roads. For those of you who like Whimberries this years crop looks like being one of the best. In the garden on the 5th we had a record four Carrion Crows together.