I saw a pair of them a few days back when I was walking near my house in the evening. Believe it or not I had never seen an owl before! I am familiar with their calls though. When I was a small kid, I guess there were a lot of owls around my house. I used to be scared to go out of home in the night because you could constantly hear them making 'gook gook' sound and it was scary. Mom would say they are owls, and owls did not sound or look very friendly in the pictures. And owls always seemed to have a role to play in spooky stories. True to their nocturnal nature, they would not be seen anywhere around in day time.
Now, when I see them for the first time, I think they are actually cute. They were small ones, almost the size of a pigeon. I watched them fluttering around for a minutes or so until they flew away. Since it was already beginning to get dark, I was not able to see them very clearly. I then rushed home and opened my 'Salim Ali'. Going by the description and picure in the book, what I saw are 'Shorteared owls' but can't be too sure....
Pictures on the net: Shorteared owl. This link also has the picture of a very beautiful 'Snow owl'; The now famous hedwig of Harry Potter.
