The return of the forest owlet
Updated:
Updated:
March 05, 2021 12:44 IST
Unlike most other owls, this species hunts during the day, when it is visible and exposed to assaults by others
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The forest owlet has an uncanny resemblance to the more common spotted owlet. Photo: Prachi Mehta
Unlike most other owls, this species hunts during the day, when it is visible and exposed to assaults by others
Prachi Mehta was always fascinated by owls. When she was a student of wildlife biology in 1997, birders spotted a forest owlet perched on a bare teak tree in northwestern Maharashtra. The news sent the birding world into a tizzy. Although the species doesn’t lurk in the dark nor frequent remote mountain valleys, it had dodged ornithologists for more than a hundred years.
Finding Refuge, and a Snowy Owl, in Central Park
When pandemic New York seemed at its most surreal, the park, with its abundant wildlife and familiar progression of the seasons, offered a vision of normal life to a book critic who wandered it daily.
Central Park’s Bridge No. 28, near the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.
March 4, 2021
It was a chilly Saturday night in February and there was more than a foot of snow in Central Park, along with slippery patches of black ice and slushy, calf-high puddles. But some 200 New Yorkers carefully made their way to the Reservoir in hopes of catching a glimpse of the magical snowy owl, who had touched down in the park the week before in what was reported as the first visit there by the species in more than 130 years.
Reports of rodent activity around Dublin homes rise 25% during pandemic Upheaval to city life has driven rats and mice to domestic settings, pest-control experts say
Mon, Mar 1, 2021, 01:00
If it had been claimed a year ago that rodent activity was set to become a bigger issue for Dublin homeowners due to the city centre being largely deserted and most restaurants and bars being closed, most would have said they smelled a rat.
However, figures provided to The Irish Times show that health authorities recorded a 25 per cent increase in rodent activity across the county last year.
Pest-control experts say the upheaval to normal city life brought about by Covid-19 restrictions has driven rats and mice towards domestic settings, particularly apartment blocks. The closure of food businesses, quiet city streets and a rise in fly-tipping are all said to be contributory factors.
An Irving police officer rescued an owl during last week’s winter storm. Officer Kotlik found the owl on the cold ground. The officer picked it up and wrapped.