Little Owl in Holcombe

Following a tip off from fellow L.O.S. member Martin Loftus, I headed up the M66 to Holcombe this afternoon to have a look at his Little Owls.  I say 'his' because Martin has been monitoring these birds ever since he moved out of Salford and up to the rural idyll that is Holcombe near Ramsbottom in true Lancashire.

The pair he first spotted a year or so ago have successfully bred this year and there are now four birds present in the quarry - two adults and two fledglings.  Martin has taken some really good photos of this family and shared them on Facebook in recent weeks, so today I was hoping it was my turn.

It took me around 15 minutes to locate the one and only Little Owl I saw today, and then, as in the old Beatles song, it was a quick case of "Hello, Goodbye" because after taking only two shots the bird flew off.

I stayed for another hour and half before the weather turned for the worse but I couldn't relocate any of them, and so I'll have revisit on another day.