Hotters' Alert: Spotting a Baby Owl

Earlier this week, I spotted an adorable baby owl, which put an end to any fears I had about the nocturnal bird. Well, more like I gatecrashed into its home, clicked plenty of photographs and tried to find common ground.

The bird's nest was a hole inside the trunk of a dead coconut tree on a uninhabited piece of land in an interior part of the city. To the best of my knowledge, it was a Tawny owlet and lived with its mother in the nest. No siblings or broken eggs were seen in the vicinity.

The withered tree, which stood tall and swayed dangerously in the post-noon breeze, had no leaves left and its bark had begun to peel off in the summer heat. Sensing the danger it could pose to the children playing on the field, my uncle shook the tree and it came crashing down. Before I realised what was happening, I heard a big crash and the flapping of wings. I, on looking up, got a glimpse of the fully-grown mother owl that flew out of the hole.

On further inspection, we found a little suprise inside the tree -- a curious hunched owlet. Although it was yet to master the legendary owl "hoot", it made some very distinct birdy sounds. One thing which surprised me was how clearly its eyes followed me. I was expecting the nocturnal bird to be almost completely blind in daylight. However, as I moved from left to right it keenly watched me and seemed to warm up to us the longer we stayed. The bird had prominent claws, could hop from one branch to the other and flapped its wings; however, it was not yet capable of full flight. 

My mother said the owlet creeped her out and blamed it on the folklore she heard, when she was young, about owls being evil and a harbinger of death. But as I looked into its big warm brown eyes, all I could thing of was how lucky Harry Potter was to have an owl for a pet.

To keep it safe from stray dogs, we left the owlet high on the fork of a tree and it camouflaged with the brown branches. It was already late evening, so we hoped mama bird would return soon and find a sturdier home for little Hedwig.