A Spotted Eagle -Owl picture story.

Not fiction, as this is a rare recent discovery, and it really made my day.

Rare to see not only one, but two owls in daylight, as owls are nocturnal, and they normally hide away during daytime.

A friend sent me a message that there were two owls in a tree down the road, and I rushed out to go and have a look. The owls sat in a big tree at the front of a resident's house, and I started taking some shots of them. Then the owner of the house came out to see what I was doing, and after greeting, he invited me into his front garden to get some better shots of the owls. No need to say that I met a new friend, as he also loves nature and we had a long chat about the owls. Apparently, the owls regard that tree as their own territory and then the owner told me that he researched owl boxes, and that he built the owls a nesting box in the tree.
So, I will let the pictures tell you the story.

That is a decent box that the owner built for the owls, and you can see the one owl sitting at the right-hand top of the picture.

That is the tree that they were sitting in.

The female at the bottom is bigger than the male at the top.

The spotted eagle-owl (Bubo africanus), also known as the African spotted eagle-owl and the African eagle-owl, is a medium-sized species of owl, one of the smallest of the eagle owls. Its length is 45 cm (18 in) and its weight is from 454 to 907 grams (1.0 to 2.0 lb). It has a 100 to 140 cm (39 to 55 in) wingspan. The facial disk is off-white to pale ochre and the eyes are yellow. It has prominent ear-tufts, and the upper body is dusky brown, the lower parts off-white with brown bars. Prior to 1999 the spotted eagle-owl was considered conspecific with the greyish eagle-owl, but now it is classed as a separate species.

Source

Two shots below of the male.

And then another shot of the female.

It was late afternoon, but the owner told me that the owls came out of the tree just after sunset to sit on the streetlamp poles close to tree, and it made sense, as when the lamps switch on for the night, the owls can sit and watch for rodents in the road below that is lit up by the streetlights. A perfect hunting spot methinks.

So, I waited until dusk and sadly only the male emerged from the tree to sit on a streetlamp.

Its prey mainly consists of rodents, small mammals, birds (up to the size of terns and falcons), insects (such as beetles), other arthropods (such as termites, spiders and scorpions), reptiles, frogs and carrion, although it has a dietary preference for small mammals such as rodents, shrews, bats, hedgehogs and young hares. It often swallows its prey whole, with much head-jerking, pausing and resting in between, while a portion of the prey remains inside the mouth, until the prey can finally be swallowed down completely.

Source

It was really a great occasion, and a wonderful discovery.

So, yes, I also did some research about the owls, and I cannot describe it better than the wikipedia sources above. Now the future looks good, as we have the owls close by, and we are waiting for them to start nesting inside that owl box. The owner of the house has undertaken to call me the moment that the owl female starts to nest, and let's hope that it still occurs during this winter season, as it will be an exciting first for me to get owl babies on camera.
Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos taken by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Until next time, cheers!