Who are you?`

Spectacled Owl, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

You maybe forgiven for thinking you’ve tuned into a blog for the TV program “Animals Do The Funniest Things“, sadly it’s nothing so entertaining.. you’ve arrived at my blog again.

This photo goes against a few of my principals as an animal lover… I like to treat animals with the due care and respect they deserve. I’m not one of those photographers who will do anything to get a shot, such as poking the creatures with a large stick (or a small one), or getting them to do tricks. So it was mixed feelings that I posted the image of this wonderful Spectacled Owl, as I felt that the bird had been robbed of it’s dignity, laughing at the bird now with it (mind you Owl’s aren’t known for their sense of humour.. you only have to look at Sage to confirm this). I think if the bird’s pupils had been the same, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but there is an obvious difference between the two. This isn’t, however, an abnormality or even something peculiar to owls, it’s not even the reason this owl is referred to as a Spectacled Owl – it’s simply down to how the bird was facing the light.

Sitting in a darkish corner of it’s enclosure (trust me, it was dark, even if the photo doesn’t give that impression. You know that phrase.. the camera never lies… well, that’s a lie!), with tree cover on all sides the bird is normally dormant when I visit. The wind, however, was so strong that for brief moments some sunlight managed to fight it’s way down into the pen. I suspect this was one of the reason that the bird was not sitting with it’s eyes closed… either that or the 10 frames a second what startled it? No, it was definitely the sunshine!

Whilst the owl may look cross, or even surprise, it was unperturbed by my presence in part due to the distance I was away from the cage.

The reason the bird is so named is due to it’s markings; if you look you can see a definite white ring around each eye inside which each eye is encircled by a deep chestnut set of feathers. A beautiful bird I’m sure you’ll agree, not sure if it’s a Who fan at all but I do think today’s blog title, one of the Who’s most well known tracks is certainly fitting. If it decided to try a windmill movement with one of it’s wings we’ll know for sure!

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