Rediscovering birding in my city... Brown Hawk Owl

I reside in Chandigarh, India. Being in army - I have spent more time outside the city than in this city. However after retirement the things have changed and I am discovering the joy of birding at places I have not visited for last 25 years perhaps. I was being told by everyone in our very own 'Chandigarh Bird Club' - Oh - the birds at Punjab University, Wow - the birds at butterfly garden - and though I was up and away roaming all places far and away, I was missing my own backyard. I decided to sort this problem out - and am now on a tour of visiting every birding place in and around nearby.

I took the big step to correct this anomaly by kicking myself out of the bed in the morning and going to Punjab University. The target being four Brown Hawk Owls residing there. I reached there at 0600 in and we had our Chandigarh Bird Club birders already there. As I greeted them (Mr Saiyam and Mr Palash) told me even before I asked them - in hushed tones - they are there and pointed to a bamboo thicket.

It was way too dark under the thicket canopy - all the same I could make out the faint outline of the birds sitting. As I brought up the camera to my eyes - the first problem surfaced - I mean that the light was low became problem no 2 and the fogging on the lens became a major concern. I had the camera with me in the room since yesterday and AC was on, then while I drove about half an hour to the University the car AC was also on. I did not realise that the hot and humid condition outside would fog up my equipment. Well I waited almost 15 minutes - spending time with the feathered guests. Eventually I got impatient and cleaned the lens with my hanky and got about shooting. First few shots were just that - shot in the dark ;-). It was only when I started ramping up the iso that the birds became visible. Finally it was 6400 iso that did the trick. The birds - as you would have guessed by now were a beauty to be in the company of. 

Okay - they were sleepy but took out time to open the eyes and stare at me...

 Okay - before I get carried away any further - something about this bird. These owls belong to the group of Typical Owls, the other being Barn Owls. This is a resident breeder in tropical South Asia from India, Sri Lanka, Indonasia and south China. It is a medium sized owl and gets its name from the Hawk like appearance due to long tal and lack of distinctive facial disk. The fun part of this bird is that there is only one record of this bird in the Western Hemisphere as per the Wikipedia - photographed in Alaska in Aug 2007.

Same Bird...

It had enough and turned her/his back on me - come on... - I was not even playing the calls...

Different bird - same place, infact they were all sitting pretty close to each other

Go Off - that's what this bird seemed to say - and I packed up and went back...

So with this begins my quest to rediscover the city I spent so much of my time in...