Hunters Hunting Owls 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 26, 2024
It was dark when we reached our accommodation in the hillside village of Pachna, where we were greeted by a duet of Scops Owls. According to the taxonomists, these weren’t regular Scops Owls ( Otus scops ) but the endemic Cyprus Scops Owl ( Otus cyprius ). It’s now on the official quarry list on the island.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 15, 2023
So though I visited Lynford, I didn’t see a Hawfinch on this occasion as I wasn’t there at the right time, though I did meet a number of hopeful Hawfinch hunters (HHHs), none of whom reported a sighting. Best bird of the day: a 3 o’clock Barn Owl The post A winter miscellany first appeared on 10,000 Birds.
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10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 25, 2020
Now that I have driven that to a state of relative completion and I am compelled to return to the forest, I learned that the government here has re-opened the hunting season. From what I’ve been hearing, sport hunters are chomping at the bit to also return to the forest in droves.
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 24, 2021
The forests are home to Kalij Pheasants , Crested Tree Swifts , Ashy Wood Swallows , owlets, woodpeckers, spider hunters, barbets and bulbuls, laughingthrushes and hornbills. Once the private hunting preserve of the Maharaja of Bharatpur, this fabulous wetland gave us a list of over ninety species in a very relaxed day on a recent trip!
10,000 Birds
MARCH 20, 2014
Further north, we slow down by the ruins of an old farm… and yes, a Little Owl greets us with its ‘smiling’ face. The intensity of experience is not the same, but, e.g. focusing on a single bird and trying to solve the puzzle… or finding the rarest owl of India , that was a mind-blowing one. More of a hunt?
10,000 Birds
MARCH 20, 2011
So, one might surmise, it’s OK if they get shot by hunters thinking they’re sandhill cranes? What could motivate gunmen (I cannot call them hunters) in two states to deliberately kill North America’s tallest and most critically endangered bird? Do all hunters realize that? It gives one to wonder why this designation was made.
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 14, 2018
I’ll admit to being momentarily faked out by the plastic owls that people put out in a futile attempt to ward off crows, which demonstrates that decoys work on birders, if not on birds themselves. I suspect it’s quite possible. Over time, the word “decoy” has lost its fowling connotations and has come to mean any kind of trick or fakery.
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