After studying the title of this text, you would possibly suppose that I’ve began writing fables and even fairy tales for youngsters. Or maybe you might be shaking your head in disgust and pondering that I’ve turned to writing zoological tabloids? Nicely, I additionally thought I used to be going loopy after I not too long ago skilled a narrative that I want to share with you. So sit again and let the story of the owl and the depraved jay start.
It was a fantastic Friday afternoon, good for a visit out of city for images. However the place do you need to go when it’s virtually 5pm? By the point you dress, say goodbye to the children, end your fourth cup of espresso, get on the bus, and the metro spits you out someplace on the outskirts of Prague, it is going to be so late that you simply’ll solely be capable of {photograph} owls. Which isn’t a nasty thought, proper?
After I arrived at a small park on the outskirts of the town, the night solar had already begun to color the timber with heat tones. The park pulsed with life. Moms pushed their strollers alongside the one paved path. Canines walked their house owners. Runners ran backwards and forwards like caged lions, as a result of the park is admittedly fairly small. And proper in the course of the park stands a forester’s lodge and a mighty oak tree.
In that oak, which is sufficiently old to recollect the Center Ages, there was a Tawny Owl dwelling for a number of years. Nicely, to be specific, the oak tree doesn’t bear in mind something; it died a while in the past, so there’s solely its torso. And the Tawny Owl not lives there. He has moved to a different oak tree 30 meters away, which remembers the Industrial Revolution however possibly nothing older than that.
To my shock, as I approached the oak, I heard an owl hooting from a distance. But it surely sounded unusual. A imprecise mixture of a male hoot and a feminine name. I checked out my watch, and it wasn’t even 7pm but. Unusual. The solar was nonetheless shining. Had the chook gone loopy? I imply, it’s an owl, with actually typical owl-like nocturnal exercise. No daylight flying, like a short-eared owl.
I run to the spot, go searching, and nothing. No signal of the owl. Oh properly, possibly I’m the one who’s loopy and simply dreaming. A minimum of I’ve the time to consider the place I’m going to shoot from when the solar really units. I arrange my tripod and get into place. I stand and wait, trying via the Nikon Z9’s show and the 200-500mm f/5.6 lens into the hole to see if I can spot a bit of an owl’s head.
All of the sudden, there’s that bizarre hooting once more. And really shut! What on earth is that? I lookup, and there’s a jay sitting proper above my head. She was the supply of the hooting, would you consider it?
So I stand below the cover of a mature oak tree and may’t consider my eyes. This wily jay clearly tries to lure the owl out of its daytime hiding place, utilizing the identical trick as most birders. She imitates the chook’s voice to lure it out into the daylight. Unimaginable! This habits requires a a lot increased degree of psychological talent than simply “seeing meals → consuming it.” (I typically fall into this mindset myself.)
This intelligent jay within the cover above me hoots fairly convincingly. Little by little, she approaches the cavity. And when she’s lower than a meter away, she jumps to the sting of the doorway. She takes a deep breath and, instantly, switches from fluent Owlish to her native Jayish, bombarding the resting owl with a barrage of the worst jay insults, after which flies away.
This scene repeats itself day after day. I visited the identical spot two weeks later, and nothing had modified within the jay’s habits. Hooting, then cursing, then flying away. Hooting, cursing, flying away…
That jay should hate the poor owl. Possibly he ate her grandmother as soon as? Who is aware of.
If I have been the owl, I’d take into consideration altering my deal with. But it surely’s not simple to discover a appropriate place to dwell in Prague nowadays. Neither for an owl nor for people. And so he takes the vicious jay assaults with stoic calm. At nightfall, the jay’s assaults stop, and the owl can lastly go away the hole in peace. He hoots just a few instances, and the park turns into his searching floor for the entire night time. Who is aware of if the depraved jay will dwell to see the subsequent morning?