A KEEN amateur photographer from Southampton is happy to report the owl chick he helped rescue is recovering well.

As previously reported, Daily Echo Camera Club member Adam McCartney got a bit of a surprise while walking through the woods earlier this month when he saw two “black beady eyes” staring back at him from the leaf litter at the bottom of a tree.

Adam was in Micheldever Wood, near Winchester, looking at the profusion of bluebells when he spotted the ball of fluff on its own.

He said: “We had the opportunity to see him again, he’s changed so much and is thriving. Thanks to Kim Boog at the BOPH (Bird Of Prey Hospital).”

After discovering the chick, the 32-year-old from Shirley Road, Southampton, turned to his fellow photographers and discovered it was a tawny owl chick, no more than two weeks old.

Adam said: “I looked down and there were two little black beady eyes looking back. I didn’t know what to do so I put it on the Camera Club.”

He called the Bird Of Prey Hospital, based in Alresford, who came out and rescued the chick.

“She said he was quite weedy and really quite young,” Adam added. “He wouldn’t have survived.”

The chick is still being looked after by the hospital until it’s mature enough to be released back into the wild.

Tawny owls grow to about the size of a wood pigeon. It is a widespread breeding species in England, Wales and Scotland.