My Neighborhood Owl

Owls are fascinating creatures. Well, atleast to me. It almost feels that there is a mystery surrounding them. I guess it is because we rarely get to see one properly. We become aware of their presence sometimes in the night, not because we hear them flying around, but because we hear them screech. And boy, some owls have screeches that can make a person jump out of their skin, especially if heard from a close distance!

Well, I guess I have been lucky. I have Owls in my neighbourhood that I sometimes get to observe; a pair of Indian Scops Owls 😀 . This post is about them.

It was when I was residing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when I heard from my wife that my neighbour had spotted an Owl in their Bougainvillea shrub in their house. Since it had not seen it moving from the spot for two days continuously, he had wanted to know if it was injured and whether he should be doing something about it. I got him to send me a photo of it. It was an Indian Scops Owl 😮 ! I had seen one earlier. But to know that there is one residing right next to my house was super exciting. I told him that it was not injured. Rather it had chosen the shrub as its roosting site 🙂 .

Upon my return home, I was glad to know that they were still around in the same shrub. Here is the first photo I managed of them through the thorny branches.

Getting decent pictures of them through the surrounding branches was difficult. Here is what I could manage:

Sometimes they would preen each other. It was really cute to watch them do so. Here is a photo I managed to take of this:

With their continued presence, it became a routine to say hello to them as we stepped out for our morning walks.

One evening, when I was sitting on my home balcony having my tea, I noticed something suddenly fly in and perch on a tree branch just besides me. It was one of the Owls! I quickly ran and took a photo of it before it flew off.

Light was poor, but I was still happy to have seen it so out in the open for the first time. May be it had heard my thoughts often of wanting to get an unobstructed view 🙂 .

They continued to roost in the same shrub for the next 6 months. Sadly, the neighbour had to trim the shrub. After this, the owls did not use the shrub again as their roosting site 😦 .

I was obviously sad that they had “moved out”. But I hoped that they would be still around in the neighbourhood. And they were indeed. On some nights, I would hear them calling from somewhere around my house 🙂 . My hopes rose that I would get to see them again. And I did. The first occasion was on walk at dusk. My wife and I had gone for a walk. When reaching near our house gate, I noticed some termites had emerged and were flying around given the recent pre-monsoon showers. And there, on the road, was one the Owls perched making easy prey of the termites.

On another occasion I saw it land, yet again, on another open branch in my garden around noon. Here is a photo from then:

I guessed that something must have flushed it out from its roosting site.

On another occasion, I was looking for some insects on a tree, when I noticed the pair perched on a branch. This time, it was even more exciting, there was a third one. And that too a special one; a juvenile!

Here is a zoomed in photo of it:

I am super happy that they continue to be around. The appearance of a young one shows that they seem to be thriving too. Let me end my post with a prayer that may they continue to do so.