Owls cast a spell on Kerala lensman

Thrissur: Many fear that an owl brings bad luck and often death. But V C Shoby loves owls and believes that it was the owl that made him a well-known wild life photographer.

Shoby remembers that when he saw an owl for the first time, he was not scared but excited. He immediately ran to his house to get his favourite camera which he carries during his frequent trips to the woods. That day he captured a beautiful image of the mottled wood owl, which is called a ‘kaalan kozhi’ (bird of death), in local slang.

In his frequent expeditions to the forests, Shoby always try to click pictures of at least one owl. Now he has clicked the pictures of more than 100 varieties of this avian species.

Shoby says that owl is not a scary bird as contrary to the popular belief. He adds that one would even begin to like owls if one is able to realise its true beauty. Usually, it is during the night that he sets out looking for owls. But he will not click pictures during night as the flash light of the camera would distress them. If he spots an owl at night, he will return to the same location the next day. He would even wait for a whole day hiding in the shrubs or bushes to capture the image of the owl.

Shoby says that though he had extensively travelled to the forests areas in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he had found the most number of owls from the hilly areas in Kerala.

He has captured mind-blowing images of many varieties of owls like the jungle owlet (chemban nathu) which is often found near households, the incredibly beautiful brown hawk owl (pullu nathu), collared scops owl (cheiyan nathu) and brown fish owl (meen kooman).

Shoby has even clicked the pictures of more than 200 species of birds and animals, which includes amazing picture collections of Indian hornbills, swans, tigers and colourful birds. Shoby, who is a graduate in Malayalam literature is a badminton coach, at the IES School.