Owl sighting

It was my normal night shift duty last night and I had an encounter with an owl while walking to the office.

The entrance to my office site is at Hougang Avenue 3 where I have to walk some distance on an un-lit road. While walking halfway through, a big and fast moving object on a pole caught my attention. I proceeded nearer to check. From the ear-tufts and its two eyes staring at me, I then realised it was an owl.

In that split second when I tried to reach for my mobile phone to snap its picture, it flew off. As the area was in pitch darkness, I couldn't identify what type of owl it was. It was also silent and didn't make any hooting sound. But I assume it to be a Collared Scops Owl (Otus bakkamoena) because of its size and the ear-tufts.

Other than the Barn Owl (Tyto alba), the Collared Scops is also common in Singapore.

According to Singapore's Nature Society magazine Nature Watch, Collared Scops are owls of the forest but they have also spread and adapted to suburban areas. They are useful to man, feeding mainly on insects (beetles, leaf-grasshoppers) and rats.

Collared Scops here hover near houses by the edge of woods and they roost in abandoned buildings but they usually nest in tree-holes.

This is only the second time I had spotted an owl. The first time was in 2005 when I was driving an off-service passenger train from the Sengkang depot to Punggol station. Perching on the Overhead Collection wire was a Barn Owl.