The Lucky Owl

 

When you go for a wildlife expedition, you don’t come back home with just one story, you come with a sack full of tales to share for the rest of your life. Here’s another experience from my favourite wildlife tour, Kanha National Park expedition.

As I mentioned in my previous Kanha blog, I went to this amazing jungle with Impressions Photography led by Sarang Mhaskar and Snehal Joshi.

Kanha is a beautiful jungle and has so much more to see than just tigers. But since the main attraction are the big bad striped cats of the jungle, we all want to at least catch a glimpse of them.

The first safari of our expedition was very exciting. We started with an evening safari the day we reached Kanha. As soon as we entered the jungle we could hear the symphony of the forest. The purity of nature was so blissful. As we went deeper into the forest, we could hear a variety of birds chirping.

While we were busy enjoying the serenity of the wild, our driver spotted a Brown Fish Owl and stopped the jeep. We were all so excited for it was the first sighting of the expedition especially me since I had only seen owls in pictures or on Nat Geo. We clicked a lot of photos and admired the beauty of the wise old owl while he sat there and posed for us. Since we didn’t have a lot of time, we decided bid goodbye to our new friend and continued with our journey, secretly hoping we’d see him again. A few miles later, we also spotted a bear somewhere far in the meadows. After an hour we decided to return since it was about to get dark. While coming back, we were passing the spot where we spotted the Brown Fish Owl and we all curiously looked for him hoping he’d still be there. And we did! So, even though that evening we only saw the owl and the bear, we weren’t disappointed…

The next day we started early at 6:00 AM. We once again passed by the owl’s spot and looked for him. To our surprise, he was still sitting there as if he waiting for us for another photoshoot. Jokingly, we bowed at his feet and hoped for some amazing sightings that day. On our first morning safari we spotted vultures enjoying the early morning sunbath and a few other wonderful creatures of the jungle. We could hear the calls of deer, foxes and some point even tigers! Although we didn’t really see any tiger that morning, we were hopeful... Our minds were capturing more images than our cameras were.  We knew the jungle would never dishearten us. We roamed for a few hours in the woods until it was time for lunch. While coming back, we once again saw our friend, the owl. This time, we really were surprised. He was still sitting there. That’s when we decided to call him our lucky owl.

Post lunch, we left for our evening safari. The owl was still sitting there! We bowed at his feet and moved ahead. that evening saw a herd of spotted deer with a black buck and some guars. While leaving, we once again saw our buddy, the owl. We once again bid him good night and hoped for a miracle sighting in future.

The next morning, we passed by the owl’s spot and to our surprise he was still sitting there. This time, he facing the other way. He turned his head 180 degrees as soon as he heard us. Once again he was posing for us. After his short photoshoot, we prayed to him for an epic sighting. And we did! We witnessed an actual chase between an Indian Sambar deer and a pack of wild dogs. The most mind captivating encounter of my life. We were all so excited. Our minds were boggled. While returning, we saw the owl sitting in the exact spot, in the exact pose he was before. We thanked him. He was indeed our lucky owl!

In the evening as we passed by the owl’s spot, we saw him once again. We bowed at his feet and thanked him again for the epic real-life Nat Geo scene we witnessed that morning and moved forward. It was our second last safari of the expedition. Hence, we were all really observant and alert hoping for a tiger sighting. Deep in the woods, we heard some tiger cubs calling their mother. We were all very thrilled yet very quiet. It was the most alert I had ever been. We were following the calls and finally we saw a tigress somewhere far in the meadows. We stealthily followed her and reached a spot where we knew she would pass us. We were trying our best to be quiet and control our excitement…And then it finally happened! A beautiful, majestic tigress walked by us. We quietly captured numerous photos. It was only for a few minutes but we felt accomplished. One of us jokingly said, “I think our lucky owl blessed us.” On our way back to the hotel, we stopped to thank our lucky owl, he was still sitting there. We thanked him for giving us not one but two amazing memories.

Then arrived the last safari of our expedition. We weren’t ready to bid farewell to beauty and to our beloved lucky owl. We passed by our lucky owl’s spot and bowed at his feet like it had become a ritual. That day we didn’t really come across anything. Not even a bird or a deer. Only lush green forest. We had to leave early since some of us had a flight to catch the same day… We stopped for a final good bye at our lucky owl’s spot. Only this time he wasn’t there. It was kind of heart breaking to not see him and wish him farewell.

A few miles later, we spotted a leopard sleeping on a tree deep in the forest. Seeing a leopard in the woods of Kanha is a very rare incident. We were obviously overjoyed.

It was the farewell gift from our beloved friend, the Brown Fish Owl. We will always remember our lucky owl. Although we didn’t get to say good bye to him, he gave us a souvenir. He proved that he will forever be more than just a Brown Fish Owl, he will forever be our adored lucky owl!

 

Thank you for reading my blog! Please mention your opinions in the comments!