BFO of Yishun | June 2020 | Singapore

There was a time when Friday was party time and after a long week I use to eagerly wait for the "Friday", nowadays I am excited as Friday means the start of my weekend to capture nautre. Last weekend was one such experience, when a fellow photographer friend and myself ventured out to find the critically endangered Malayn Fish owl or Buffy Fish Owl in Singapore. We had already got to know it was in the area of Yishun HBD blocks on the side of the canal. When we reached there, we could not locate the exact tree where it was perched, but the helpful locals always guide you to the right perch. The next 4 hrs was an enigmatic experience. Generally during the day time the owls sleep it off, with occasional checks around the surroundings. So the challenge here was when the Owls will open their eyes, so that we can shoot it wide open. In the 2-3 hr span we were there, it would have kept it eyes open in the photogenic position for max 5 mins. The comical facial expression of the owls make it more interesting. One of the best shots taken was while one of them was looking at the other, the lower perched owl was yawning way to glory. The most challenging part was both of them looking at you with both their eyes open, few of my captures have frozen that moment. Another of my favourite capture was one of the puff was raised in a pose " what are you guys doing ?". One of my captures will have a white eye of the Owl, its an interesting fact. The owls have three eyelids, upper and lower eyelids as well as this third eyelid which is a thin layer of tissue (nictitating membrane) that closes the eyes from inside out diagonally to clean and protect the eye surface and gives a white look.. ( Like all fish owls, the buffy fish owl has prominent ear tufts on the sides of the head. Its wing feathers and tail are broadly barred yellowish and dark brown. The wings are distinctly rounded in shape. The underparts are a yellowish brown, rich buff or fulvous with broad blackish shaft stripes. Its long legs are not feathered. ) As we had decided we left the spot so that other photographers can shoot them and we maintained the social distancing norms . While coming back, I checked my camera, it had 2400 ( exactly the no of characters in this blog ) shots of the owls; I am sure that time if anyone would have photographed my eyes they would have found an uncanny similarity with the BFO eyes!