The owl

Owls. Are they good or bad? This is the question I found asking myself when I spotted an owl perching on the window grill of my room. I had never noticed it before and I never had any strange incidents with any wild creatures, except of course that day a few years ago when a snake crawled up the water pipe into my bathroom while I was taking a bath!

Since the owl is a nocturnal bird I don't find it doing anything else except sleep. A few times a day it will change its position. One interesting thing I found is that it will sometimes lift up one of its legs (forgive my inaccurate anatomical description) and retract it, while it perches on another leg. I thought only herons did that. In the night it probably flies away in search of food. When I wake up in the morning, I again find it perched quietly. All these days ( I remember it showed itself on 21st Nov. the very next day after the CAT), it has never made a sound, even when a couple of naughty and noisy birds disturb its sleep by cackling incessantly in the afternoon. The owl just rocks its head left and right trying to put itself to sleep.

Sometimes it opens its eyes if it catches me working on my computer. It cranes its head and twists it almost 180 degrees (clockwise and anti-clockwise). I tried to do it once but strained my neck in the process! I'll take a picture of it someday. I don't want to open the window lest it gets frightened and flies away.

People told me that it is a bad omen if an owl hoots by a house. But I don't mind them. It hasn't disturbed me and I'm not disturbing it. We just let each other be.