Little Owl - a photo on Flickriver

Little Owl

            Little Owl / athene noctua. 15/08/19.

I spent many hours with this bird yesterday, initially watching it sleep high in a tree, it's branch constantly buffeted by the wind. I have to say I was surprised how long it endured these conditions when there were so many stable, sheltered places to roost  down below.

Just after midday the sun strengthened and in response, the LO flew down and perched on various cemetery monuments to continue napping and preening routines. Here it is perched on an overgrown grave using a stone flower urn to elevate it slightly from the ground. It had suddenly snapped it's eyes open in response to a sound nearby. Whatever it was failed to hold it's attention and it was soon fast asleep again.

BEST VIEWED LARGE.

Taken on: August 15, 2019

Tags:

little owl

athene noctua

owl

bird of prey

introduced species

widespread

population decline

habitat loss

never abundant

inland

brownfield sites

rural

parkland

hedgerows

farmland

derelict farm buildings

copses

orchards

woodland edges

resident population

overwinters

uk smallest owl

dumpy stature

grey-brown plumage

speckled white

densely streaked breast

camouflaged

short tail

feathered legs

sharp claws

talons

broad rounded head

pale lemon eyes

prominent white eyebrows

pale yellow hooked beak

predator

predatory

hunts at night

hunts at dawn

small mammals

small birds

beetles

moths

earthworms

bobs head when alarmed

undulating flight

fast wing beats

loping glides

hole nester

old trees

drystone walls

rabbit holes

derelict buildings

summer

sunny intervals

warm

very windy

churchyard

overgrown grave

stone grave furniture

lichen + algae

perched down low

alert

watchful

responding to sound

bokeh « less

Sets appears in: • Upload to flickr • Birds

Groups appears in: • Birds of Britain and Ireland • British wild birds more » • Wildlife Of Great Britain and Ireland. • Birds and Wildlife UK • * Birds of Britain * • Countryfile • Wildlife UK • BBC Springwatch (Official) • British Bird Photography WILD BIRDS ONLY • WILD BRITAIN. • Wild life photography bokeh • British Isles Flora and Fauna • Birds and nature of the uk « less

Stats: 3,306 views / 21 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder