Birding

Another post about owls

February 20, 2020 by Kai Pflug No Comments

Strange as it may seem, this is not an entry into a “most boring blog headline” contest. Rather, it is derived from an obscure song by a British band (Marc Riley and the Creepers) titled “Another song about motorbikes”. Which I think is quite a clever way of taking a potentially cool topic and making it mundane.

For those still reading on after this introduction, this is about Barn Owls I have seen in Germany in summer 2018 and winter 2019 – rural Northern Germany, to be more specific. And as the introduction above perfectly illustrates, there is not much I can write about the topic – as usual, the photos will have to do the heavy lifting.

In summer 2018, I spent a couple of nights near barn owl nesting boxes, watching the parental delivery service and its expectant customers.

The next time I saw a barn owl was in South Africa, at Kruger National Park in November 2018. One roosted in the wooden roof of an open restaurant building, undisturbed by the tourist activity below.

In December 2019, I found a roosting barn owl on my last day in Germany.

As a friend of mine commented, this one (indeed the last photo I took) looks like a shy girlfriend seeing me leave …

 

More owl photos here.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.