See You ; See Me - Andaman Scops Owl

South Andaman

My night time owling adventures started with the judgmental, Walden’s Scops Owl who wasn’t really shy at all despite being like 20 cms tall. The adventures fittingly ended in Andaman with his cousin, the Andaman Scops Owl. I saw a couple of Barn Owls asleep on a tree after that but I’m not really sure that I have any material to write about as far as that last sighting is concerned so Ill wait till I see some again to post about that.

Oh ! He’s my favorite of the lot, the Andaman Scops Owl. In case you haven’t noticed, I absolutely love eye contact with my subjects, be it my boy or a beast and I honestly feel that the moods of all creatures comes out in the eyes the best. Their moods can also be seen in their faces just like ours although they don’t or can’t smile. When the eyes are glowing yellow embers in the dark of the night, they become the main event. The pictures of these little owls scare my wife more than pictures of roaring lions and running cheetahs thanks to those yellow eyes. Another thing I love is catching owls in a blacked out background and this little guy not only gave me that from two perches (Pics : 1 – 4 & 13 - 16), he also gave me pictures of him in some awesome foliage that looks like a ring around him as if he was sitting there on purpose to pose (Pics 9 – 12).

Now, this guy just would not quit looking at me from all the five perches that I chased him around. Guy was as interested in me as I was in him and even did head tilts in opposite directions like your pet Dog does when he hears a new sound ( Pics : 6 & 7). The whole sighting was a constant game of peek-a-boo with him and totally a unique and special experience that I’m sure I’ll never forget. What a gorgeous, bold, little bird who being 20 or co centimeters tall was staring at me with a look that said “Really, you walking up to me?” He’d change perches so silently but never too far away so finding him again, repositioning light and cam and approaching again was not an issue with this guy at all. Owls can be pretty hard to find when they change perches because of the dark and as they’re armed with those large wings that make slow movements, add to that they have serrations on their wing feathers and velvet down feathers, all features that act like flight silencers enabling them to snag up their prey in the dark in total silence.

Im not going to get into the characteristics of Scops Owls that I shared in “Judgemental Much?” Instead, I’m just gonna share a lot more picks of this guy right here cause I loved my time photographing him so much and I love the results. I was at the standard that I used throughout the trip for owls. 1/50 shutter, 10 K ISO, shutter priority and lighting in manual flashes from the side of the subject using a torch. We settled on a pattern, time wise so that the person with the torch and the one photographing would be on the same mental clock.

Owls are fantastic in my opinion and if they didn’t like our proximity, they’d fly off and be done with us altogether. Interestingly, they don’t do that. Most times, when they change perches, they go close by so they’re judging you as much as you’re getting to know them as well. Overall, l found the Scops Owls to be braver and the Hawk Owls to be more wary of us Humans. The Scops Owls were also more into direct eye contact and generally a lot easier to photograph given their nature. A huge favor these guys did for me, was set up a new standard for night photography for me that works better with my camera.

I honestly hope that I have more opportunities to observe, get to know and photograph them in the future. They’re just so cute and totally opposite of scary that my wife thinks them to be. She needs to see just how cute next time around hopefully.