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Encounter with Great Horned Owls Owls have always been my favourite birds. Being nocturnal birds of prey, they are seldom seen. They are out there hunting, when you and I are indoors, sleeping. Their powers of vision and hearing are extra ordinary. They can successfully hunt, even in near darkness, relying totally on the sound made by their potential prey. Main prey species include field rats, mice, small reptiles and snakes, other small birds and even insects. Common owls occurring in our place include the Spotted Owlets, Jungle Owlet, Mottled Wood Owl, Great Horned Owl, Collared Scops Owl, Oriental Scops Owl and a few others. The big owls are especially awesome creatures, and their strength and power is truly breath taking. Especially Great Horned Owls, the biggest of them all, are massive, deadly birds when it comes to hunting, and they're known to have killed even adult peacocks and chital fawns. And when they have chicks to defend, they're known to fearlessly attack even humans. Being such great birds, I am always thrilled when I see owls in the field, by chance. I'd never seen Great Horned Owls before in my life, and was quite eager to see and photograph one in the wild, for a long time. There had always been reports of them at a rocky forest area called Turehalli on the outskirts of Bangalore city, and I had kept that in mind to explore it one day. Incidentally, a couple of friends made a visit to Turehalli during the first week of May and came back with photographs and good sightings of a single Great Horned Owl. Seeing that, I should admit that my blood surged, and I could not hold myself back but go and get them. With some rough directions from the friends, on Tuesday the 3rd of May, despite it being a working day(I can skip half a day at office for owls) I took the camera and headed for Turehalli early at 4AM.
After nearly 45 minutes and a 1GB card full of photographs, I retraced my steps slowly and left the owls to themselves. They were still there on the rocks even as I turned my back to them. It is a different story that in my excitement I lost all sense of direction and for the next two hours lost my way in that forest hopelessly and with great difficultly found my way back to the road and to the waiting bike. But then, I would've done anything to get those two great owls, one of the greatest secrets of our forests. But even now, if you dare lock eyes with the wild Great Horned Owl, YOU WILL BE AFRAID! |
With some difficulty I found the region, parked the bike and on a wild guess went into the scrub
jungle scattered with eucalyptus trees and a few rocky hillocks. I had no idea where in this forest
to find two elusive owls, but Lady Luck was with me that day. After an hour of roaming, I walked right
into a pair of Great Horned Owls. The next 30 minutes I made sure I kept them comfortable and as they
got used to my presence, I clicked away and filled up a 1 Gigabyte card with Great Horned Owl photographs,
for you never know when you might get such an opportunity again. Imagine, having not one, but two
Great Horned Owls, sitting 20 feet from you and staring deep into your eyes!!!